Abstract
This study was carried out to ascertain the hygienic practices among tertiary institutions study and also to isolate and identify microbiota from their thereby conduct molecular screening of fingernails for potential pathogens. A total of 300 nail samples carefully aseptically collected from 30 consented individuals include artificial and natural fingernails from both male and female students of The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki. The students’ consent were sought for and other ethical issues were complied with as stipulated by the Institutional Ethical Committee. The fingernails were swabbed with sterile swab sticks and thereafter inoculated on the surface of suitably prepared media plates and sub-cultured to obtain pure isolates. Morphological and biochemical tests were carried out on the isolates to confirm the isolates. All students were found to harbour diverse microbes on their undernails. The microorganisms isolated include: <i>E.coli</i> 16.6%, <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> 22.2%, <i>Streptococcus spp</i> 13.88%, <i>Bacillus spp</i> 25%, members of the <i>Acinetobacter</i> 2.77%, <i>Salmonella spp</i> 13.88%, Fungi 5.55%. The suspected Fungi isolates were sent for sequencing for further identification and characterization. The highest prevalence was found to be more in females than in their male counterparts, which could be as a result of unhygienic practices especially nail-fixing related of artificial nails because those with artificial nails keep longer nails than keeping natural nails. This result further confirmed that fingernails are a possible reservoir of several microbes and could be implicated in the spread of more virulent microorganisms.
Highlights
Un-hygienic practices among all ages have variously contributed to food borne diseases and are known to contribute to both human morbidity and mortality in addition as health care costs
It was observed that the prevalence of E.coli 16.6%, Staphylococcus aureus 22.22%, Streptococcus spp 13.88%, Bacillus spp 25%, Acinetobacter spp 2.77%, Salmonella spp 13.88%, Fungi 5.55% are a greater concern for health
The results showed that high contaminations were found in females than in males, which could be as a result of artificial nails being fixed by female and keeping of long nails because artificial and long nails harbour more microorganisms than short nails
Summary
Un-hygienic practices among all ages have variously contributed to food borne diseases and are known to contribute to both human morbidity and mortality in addition as health care costs. Outbreaks of food borne disease, health care costs related to these outbreaks are enormous [1]. The body surface is continually in touch with environmental microorganisms and become ready colonized by certain microbial species, gram- negative and gram-positive pathogens in clinical specimens. It will be a spread of community or hospital acquired infections, including those of the tract, tract, wounds and burns, bacteremia neonatal meningoencephalitis, emphysema and osteomyelitis. The unhygienic habits of most of the people result in the varied infections through
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
