Bacterial contamination of Yemeni currency papers and their antibiotic resistance patterns

Abstract

This cross sectional study was carried out during 2020-2021 on Yemeni currency papers to determine the prevalence rate of bacterial contamination and associated risk factors. Anti-microbial sensitivity patterns of the common pathogens contaminated Yemeni currency papers were also investigated. A total of 324 currency papers were collected randomly from different areas of Dhamar city and examined. The samples were collected from different categories of community people such as health care workers, butcher’s shops, vegetable vendors, restaurants waiters, public transport conductors, Berbers and Bankers. The currency papers were transferred to microbiology laboratory and tested for bacterial contamination using standard microbiological methods. Antibiotic resistance patterns of isolated bacteria were determined by disk diffusion method. The results revealed that, out of 324 samples examined, 315 samples were positive for bacterial contamination with over all prevalence rate as 97.22%. The results of bacterial culture revealed that, 14 bacterial species were identified. The species identified were Escherichia coli (E. coli) with the highest prevalence rate (23.81%) followed by Citrobacter spp. (18.73%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (14.6 %), Klebsiella. (9.52%), Staphylococcus aureus (8.57%), Pseudomonas spp. (6.03%), Proteus spp. (5.4%), Shigella spp (3.17%), Streptococcus pyogens (3.17%), Salmonella spp (2.86%), Streptococcus pneumonia (2.54%), Enterobacter spp. (0.95%) and Enterococcus (o.63%). There were significant differences (P<0.05) on the prevalence rates among isolates species. There were no association (P<0.05) between contamination rate of currency papers and source of samples. All isolated bacteria were resistant to Methicillin and Ceftazidime; whereas, sensitive to others antibiotics in particular Piperacillin/ Tazobactam. In conclusion, the Yemeni currency papers circulating among community people were contaminated with verity range of bacterial species and some of them multi-drug resistant to common antibiotics. The decontamination of currency paper with disinfections in the banks and markets is recommended to reduce the transmission of pathogens to human.