Handborne transmission of infectious agents by escalator handrails, shopping carts and automated teller machines (ATMs)

摘要

The escalator handrails, shopping carts and automated teller machines (ATMs) located in city center of Dammam, Khobar, and Qatif were investigated for their potential as sources of pathogenic bacteria. Two hundreds forty-one samples, out of 335, werefound to be positive of bacterial growth. The positive samples were obtained from shopping carts (101 out of 129 samples, 78.3%); 89 out of 98 (90.8%) from automated teller machines (ATMs) and 51 out of 108 (47.2%) from escalator handrails. The highest positive samples of shopping carts (84.1%) were obtained from Dammam, Qatif (75.9%) and Khobar (70.3%). On the other hand, the highest positive samples of ATMs (98.0%) were obtained from Dammam, (92.9%) from Khobar, and (71.4%) from Qatif. The total viable count (1.3 x 105 cfu), (1.5 x 104 cfu), and (3.8 x 103 cfu) were observed in the samples of ATMs, shopping carts, and escalator handrails, respectively. The most commonly isolated bacteria were Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus cereus, Kocuria atrina and Staphylococcus epidermidis.