A STUDY ON SCREENING OF IRAQI CURRENCIES COLLECTED FROM DUHOK CITY, IRAQ FOR BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION

Background: Paper currenciesarelargely exchanged and as of the high incidencevarying from place to place, could help as ways for communication of multi-resistant bacterial pathogens. The purpose is to found out bacterial contaminations of Iraqi currencies collected from numerous communities and their susceptibility to antibiotics at Duhok city, Iraq. Subject and Methods: A total of 302 currencies were collected from 8 community residents and examined by culturing on Blood, Mannitol salt, MacConkey and Chocolate agar.Identification of the growing isolates were done byregular conventional bacteriological approaches. Results of susceptibility testing to fourteen antibiotics were carried out as per Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. Results: Out of 302 collected samples, 96% revealed bacterial contamination that 16 % had mixed bacterial isolates. An overall of 9 different bacterial species were isolated from six Iraqi currencies. Of them, (24.2%) was Bacillus subtitles followed by Escherichia coli (14.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (13.4%), Micrococcus (13.0%), Staphylococcu salbus (10.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10.2%), Klebsiella (9.9%), Proteus (2.5%) and Enterobacter (1.6%); general isolates were displayed high resistance to Vancomycin, Erythromycin, Ampicillin and Cefixime; lacking or slight resistance to Amikacin, Gentamicin, Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin, Azithromycin, Ceftriaxone and Rifampin. Conclusions: Study revealed that Iraqi currencies that circulating in Duhok city was contaminated with diverse and likely pathogenic bacteria comprising multi antibiotic resistant strains. Therefore the need to progress health awareness among people while handling currency is a crucial matter. Duhok Med J 2018; 12 (1): 63-72