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This study compared the bactericidal efficacy of eight commercially available disinfectants \u2013 alcohols, hydrogen peroxide, quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), and chlorhexidine (CHX) \u2013 against multidrug-resistant clinical isolates of\n                    <jats:italic>Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>Acinetobacter baumannii<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>Staphylococcus aureus<\/jats:italic>\n                    ,\n                    <jats:italic>Enterococcus faecium<\/jats:italic>\n                    , carbapenem-resistant\n                    <jats:italic>Pseudomonas aeruginosa<\/jats:italic>\n                    , and model organism\n                    <jats:italic>Candida albicans<\/jats:italic>\n                    as the most frequent causes of hospital-acquired infections in Croatia. Several formulations, particularly those based on QACs and CHX, retained full bactericidal activity even when diluted 10\u201332 times after only 1 min of contact, while alcohols were ineffective when diluted more than twice. However, all the formulations were effective when applied at full concentration. These findings highlight marked differences in the intrinsic bactericidal strength of commercial products, especially if not applied properly, which may explain variable outcomes observed in routine hospital disinfection practices. These issues may be overcome by rotating different disinfectant classes during routine surface decontamination and by optimising disinfectant strength to improve ARB and fungal control in clinical settings.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.2478\/aiht-2026-77-4065","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,3]],"date-time":"2026-07-03T19:04:34Z","timestamp":1783105474000},"page":"132-139","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Marked variations in the effectiveness of commercial disinfectants against clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi"],"prefix":"10.2478","volume":"77","author":[{"given":"Josip","family":"Figl","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital Centre Zagreb , Department of Surgery , Zagreb , Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stjepan","family":"Nemec","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Zagreb Faculty of Science , Department of Biology , Zagreb , Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zrinka","family":"Bo\u0161njak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital Centre Zagreb , Department of Clinical and Molecular Microbiology , Zagreb , Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ana","family":"Budimir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital Centre Zagreb , Department of Clinical and Molecular Microbiology , Zagreb , Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tomislav","family":"Ivankovi\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Zagreb Faculty of Science , Department of Biology , Zagreb , Croatia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"374","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026070319572262019_j_aiht-2026-77-4065_ref_001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jinadatha C, Navarathna T, Negron-Diaz J, Ghamande G, Corona BA, Adrianza A, Coppin JD, Choi H, Chatterjee P. 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