Parasitological and Bacterial Contamination of Nigerian Currency Notes and the Antimicrobial Resistance of the Isolates in Akure, Southwestern Nigeria

Money has been reported as an agent enhancing the transmission of parasites eggs/cysts and microbes from one person to another worldwide including Nigeria. This study examined the parasitological and bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes and the antimicrobial resistance of the isolates in Akure, southwestern Nigeria. Standard parasitological and microbial methods were followed. Firstly, 160 pieces of various denominations of the Nigerian naira notes were randomly collected aseptically from various sources in Akure. Secondly, sterile cotton swabs moistened with buffered peptone water solution were used for swabbing each naira note and the swabs were separately soaked into 15 mL sterile buffered peptone water solution. Centrifugation was used in order to make parasites eggs/cysts to sediment and examined through the light microscope. Of the 160 samples investigated, 63 (39.4%) were found to be positive for parasite eggs/cysts. Also, ₦100 (80.0%) and ₦1000 (10.0%) significantly (p<0.05) have the highest and lowest currency denomination parasitic contamination. Moreover, parasites eggs/cysts isolated include eggs/cysts of Enterobius vermicularis (8.9%), Hookworm (4.9%), Entamoeba histolytica (34.5%), Flagellates (5.4%), Ascaris sp. (29%), Strongyloides stercoralis (2.2%), Isospora sp. (3.1%) and Trichuris trichiura (12.9%). Also, average total bacterial load of 2186.9 × 10 cfu/mL was recorded for all the currency notes examined (p<0.05). The major bacterial species isolated from the samples examined are Staphylococcus aureus (23.1%), Escherichia coli (17.2%) and Pseudomonas sp (15.8%). It is apparent from this study that Nigeria Naira note particularly ₦100 can serve as an agent enhancing the transmission of parasites egg/cysts and bacteria in Akure metropolis.