Medical Implications Of The Fungi Flora Of Naira - “A Nigerian Currency”

摘要

Study BackgroundDespite the impregnation of paper currency notes with disinfectant to inhibit microorganisms, pathogens had long been isolated from currency notes .The microorganisms implicated included members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Vibrio cholera, e.t.c. Simultaneous handling of food and money contributes to the incidence of food-related public health incidents. This work focuses on the fungi flora load of Nigerian currency and the associated medical hazard.Study Design/ Methods: A completely randomized sample collection design was adopted. A total of 160 dirty and tattered notes, and 40 minted denominations were randomly collected from various groups using the currency in Maiduguri Metropolis and Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Culture was by the pour plate method. Other routine fungi isolation techniques were adopted.RESULT : The fungi flora of the various denominations of Nigerian currency Notes does not differ significantly- As the fungi loads of the various Aspergillus species, and Blastomyces dermatitidis isolated from the various currency denominations had statistical calculated F value less than table value using the one-way ANOVA technique.CONCLUSION: All currency notes in use may be potential sources of disseminating hazardous fungi pathogens no matter the type, - dirty, tattered, nor minted naira notes Introduction Money is defined as anything that is widely used for making payments and accounting for debts and credits.1 The possibility that currency notes might act as environmental vehicles for the transmission of potential pathogenic microorganisms was first suggested by Abram’s and Waterman (1972).2 Paper currency is widely exchanged for goods and services in countries worldwide. It is used for every type of commerce, ranging from buying milk at a local store to trafficking in sex and drugs. The official currency in Nigeria is the naira notes. Its denomination ranges from N5, N10, N20, N50, N100, N200, N500 and N1000 notes. Mishandling of naira notes by people usually lead to its contamination. The contamination of naira notes and its public health implications have not been well documented especially those of fungi contaminants because little or no research has been done on this area. Contamination may be introduced to the naira notes during production, from the atmosphere or from various uses and abuses of the naira notes - likewise during storage .3 Study Design/Methods A completely randomized sample collection design. A total of 160 dirty, tattered, and 40 minted naira notes of each denomination were collected from students, food sellers, market traders and banks around Maiduguri Metropolis and Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Samples were collected inside sterile polythene bags with hand gloves. Each of the naira notes was rinsed in a sterile container containing 20ml of distilled water. After 5 – folds of serial dilution, 1ml of the resulting liquid was transferred into Petri dish by pipette and Saboraud dextrose (Oxoid) agar was poured on it. The plate was gently swirled to allow proper mixing and then incubated at room temperature for 3 -21days. After 3days of incubation, fungi growth of different colonies was observed on the plates. Different colonies from the mixed cultures of the fungal isolates were then sub cultured into another Saboraud Dextrose (Oxoid) Agar to obtain a pure colony of the fungal isolates. Identification of Fungi: Presumptive identification of the fungal isolates was based on macroscopic and microscopic examination of the cultures4 . Macroscopic Examination: Macroscopic growth pattern of the fungi and their colour on the plates were observed. Microscopy Preparation of slides; A drop of lacto phenol – cotton blue (Oxoid) was placed at the centre of a clean dry slide and fungal isolate colonies picked with transparent and sterile cello tape , used in securely covering it. The slide was observed under the microscope with x10 objective and x40 ob