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Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Paper currency is used for every type of commerce and plays an important role in the life of human beings. However, the combination of its widespread use and constant exchange make paper currency a likely agent for disease transmission. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the mic...

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Autores principales: Girma, Gosa, Ketema, Tsige, Bacha, Ketema
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25424723
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-7-843
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author Girma, Gosa
Ketema, Tsige
Bacha, Ketema
author_facet Girma, Gosa
Ketema, Tsige
Bacha, Ketema
author_sort Girma, Gosa
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Paper currency is used for every type of commerce and plays an important role in the life of human beings. However, the combination of its widespread use and constant exchange make paper currency a likely agent for disease transmission. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the microbial load and safety of Ethiopian paper currencies collected from some food vendors in Jimma town. METHODS: Standard microbiological methods were used for the enumeration of various microbial groups, isolation and characterization of pathogenic bacteria and their growth potential in selected weaning foods. A total of 100 samples of Ethiopian paper currencies, consisting of five denominations, from street food venders, hotels and cafeterias in Jimma town were collected aseptically. Sterile cotton swabs moistened with buffered peptone water solution were used for swabbing and the swabs were separately soaked into 10 ml sterile buffered peptone water solution. RESULTS: Mean microbial counts of Aerobic mesophilic bacteria, Staphylococci, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms and Aerobic bacterial spores were (log CFU/cm(2)) 6.32, 4.43, 3.14, 2.98 and 3.78, respectively. However, mean counts of Yeasts and Moulds were below detectable levels. There was statistically significant variation (p < 0.05) among the mean counts of microbes isolated from samples of paper currencies. The predominantly isolated microbial groups were Staphylococcus spp. (34.06%) followed by Bacillus spp. (31.88%), Enterobacteraceae (13.39%), Micrococcus spp. (9.55%) and Streptococcus spp. (9.03%). Overall, 25% and 10% of the samples were positive for S. aureus and Salmonella spp, respectively. In challenge study, Salmonella spp. and S. aureus reached the infective dose within 12 to 18 hours of inoculation. CONCLUSION: Thus, paper currencies could be considered as one of the possible vehicles for transmission of disease causing microorganisms. Poor handling practices and personal hygiene of the food vendors could contribute to the observed microbial counts. Thus, it calls for awareness development on the potential risks associated with poor handling of paper currencies at all level of the food establishments.
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spelling pubmed-42554392014-12-05 Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia Girma, Gosa Ketema, Tsige Bacha, Ketema BMC Res Notes Research Article BACKGROUND: Paper currency is used for every type of commerce and plays an important role in the life of human beings. However, the combination of its widespread use and constant exchange make paper currency a likely agent for disease transmission. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the microbial load and safety of Ethiopian paper currencies collected from some food vendors in Jimma town. METHODS: Standard microbiological methods were used for the enumeration of various microbial groups, isolation and characterization of pathogenic bacteria and their growth potential in selected weaning foods. A total of 100 samples of Ethiopian paper currencies, consisting of five denominations, from street food venders, hotels and cafeterias in Jimma town were collected aseptically. Sterile cotton swabs moistened with buffered peptone water solution were used for swabbing and the swabs were separately soaked into 10 ml sterile buffered peptone water solution. RESULTS: Mean microbial counts of Aerobic mesophilic bacteria, Staphylococci, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms and Aerobic bacterial spores were (log CFU/cm(2)) 6.32, 4.43, 3.14, 2.98 and 3.78, respectively. However, mean counts of Yeasts and Moulds were below detectable levels. There was statistically significant variation (p < 0.05) among the mean counts of microbes isolated from samples of paper currencies. The predominantly isolated microbial groups were Staphylococcus spp. (34.06%) followed by Bacillus spp. (31.88%), Enterobacteraceae (13.39%), Micrococcus spp. (9.55%) and Streptococcus spp. (9.03%). Overall, 25% and 10% of the samples were positive for S. aureus and Salmonella spp, respectively. In challenge study, Salmonella spp. and S. aureus reached the infective dose within 12 to 18 hours of inoculation. CONCLUSION: Thus, paper currencies could be considered as one of the possible vehicles for transmission of disease causing microorganisms. Poor handling practices and personal hygiene of the food vendors could contribute to the observed microbial counts. Thus, it calls for awareness development on the potential risks associated with poor handling of paper currencies at all level of the food establishments. BioMed Central 2014-11-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4255439/ /pubmed/25424723 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-7-843 Text en © Girma et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Girma, Gosa
Ketema, Tsige
Bacha, Ketema
Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia
title Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia
title_full Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia
title_fullStr Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia
title_short Microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia
title_sort microbial load and safety of paper currencies from some food vendors in jimma town, southwest ethiopia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4255439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25424723
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-7-843
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