Bacteriological Evaluation Of Nigerian Currency Notes From Selected Handlers In Ilesha Metropolis Of Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Peoples from various background and from difffferent works of life with difffferent hygienic status always engaged in  physical transactions with a legal tender of varied denominations for exchange of goods and services, and one of the legal tender  offiffifficially recognized in Nigeria is called naira. This study evaluated bacterial contaminants onnaira notes in circulations from  selected handlers with specifific profession and determined the resistance of the isolates to conventional antibiotic in use.  Methods: A  total of 160 samples of currency notes 20 each of 8 existing denominations in Nigeria, collected from selected participants  of various professions soaked in ringer's solution were serially diluted, subculture to various bacteriological media, Gram  stained and biochemically characterized. Determination by antibiogram study was carried out,with a view to identifying resistance risk  factors that could be associated with these contaminatedcurrency notes.  Results: The microbial load was found to be higher in lower denominations irrespective of their polymer status. The total bacterial  count per milliliter varied between 2.28 ×104 and 4.20×107 CFU, while the percentage distributions of isolates; Staphylococcus aureus  (36.8%), Escherichia coli (31.5%), Bacillus spp (3.7%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (27.5%) and varied resistance to antibiotics used were  recorded.  Conclusion: Bacterial antibiotic resistance has been associated with treatment failure, high health cost  burden and loss of manpower  hours due to over hospitalization. The microbial contaminant loads capable of causing opportunistic infection were found to be  present in currency notes examined. The alarming resistance of bacteria to selected conventional antibiotics used in this study, serves  an indication of potential threat of contaminated currency notes to public health. &nbsp