Bacteria In Day Care Environment

摘要

With the need for women to get involved in economic enhancement of the family and with career mothers in the increase in our society, there has been increase in the need to have day care centers to keep the little baby while both parents go to work. Often children come home from some of the Day Care centres with episodes of diarrhea, gastroenteritis and skin diseases. A number of these centers are established in our country without any supervision as to standard of the environment.Five Day-Care centers in the city of Abeokuta were involved in this study. Swabs from the floor, cots of the baby, the toilet and the hands of the nurses involved in their care were collected. The samples were analyzed and tested for total viable bacteria count plating to determine microbial count and types.A total of eleven different bacterial isolates were identified. Almost all the bacteria isolated in this study were enteric which are mostly responsible for enteric diseases in young children.There is a need to improve hygienic behaviours in our Day Care Centres and governments must oversee these centres and ensure the proprietors/proprietresses abide with the minimum standard. Introduction Day care Centre is a place where infants and children are kept, for a particular period of time for nursing care, nutrition, sleep, excretion, general comfort and follow up of the children (Wallace HM and Ebrahim, 1981). With the need for women to get involved in economic enhancement of the family and with career mothers in the increase in our society, there has been increase in the need to have these day care centers to keep the little baby while both parents go to work. This has also reduced the age at which these children are taken to these Day care centers for care.The ease of spread of communicable diseases generally depends on the environment, the children themselves and the employees of these Day care centers who take care of these children. Often these children come home with episodes of diarrhea, gastroenteritis, chest and skin diseases.Five of such centers in Abeokuta, the capital city of Ogun state, in south western Nigeria, were involved in this study. The aim was to determine the level of hygiene in these centers. The bacteria isolated as well as the bacteria count were determined. The results are reported in this paper. Materials And Methods Five different day care centers within Abeokuta township were involved in this study. The general environment of the Day Care Centres was noticed. Sterile cotton buds were used to collect samples from the floor, cots of the babies, the toilets and the hands of the nurses/assistants involved in their care. Each cotton bud was put inside sterile 10ml normal saline immediately after swabbing to keep the organisms alive from the Centre to the laboratory. Aseptic techniques were observed during collection of the samples.The samples were analyzed and tested for total viable bacteria count, plating to determine microbial number and types. Results The microorganisms isolated, from the five Day Care Centers differ from one center to the other and were both pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms. Various bacteria were isolated from all the Day care centres. These isolates were gotten from the floor, toilet, cot and the hands of the nurses. The bacterial isolates were Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus sp., Klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa., Escherichia coli, Streptococcus faecalis, Proteus sp., Shigella dysenteriae, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Micrococcus. E. coli and S. aureus were common isolates from all the Day Care centers. S. aureus, S. faecalis and E. aerogenes were isolated from two centres while S. dysentariae was isolated only from one centre. Four of the Day Care Centres were highly contaminated. There were eleven different bacterial isolates from Day Care Centre 1, four different isolates from Day Care Centre 2, eight isolates from Day Care Centre 3, five isolates from Day Care Centre 4, and six differen