Prevalence Of Parasitic Oocysts And Ova On Currency

Abstract

A study of the contamination of Nigerian currency notes by parasites was carried out in Nnewi North LGA between January and August 2004. Three hundred and fifty-five pieces of different denominations of naira notes were collected from different points of contact in Nnewi North LGA. There were 500, 200,100, 50, 20, 10, and 5 naira denominations separated into five groups on the basis of their physical appearance as follows: mint fresh, clean, dirty, very dirty and very dirty and mutilated. Each note was swabbed on both surfaces with cotton wool soaked in normal saline. The swab was pressed into a tube containing formal saline and the tube was later centrifuged at 2000rpm for 3 minutes. The supernatant was examined for parasite ova, cysts and oocysts under the microscope. The result showed that 53(14.9%) of the currency notes were contaminated. The very dirty and mutilated notes were the most contaminated while the mint fresh and clean notes which served as controls showed no parasites. In terms of denominations the twenty naira notes were the most contaminated (5. 9%) while the five hundred and two hundred naira notes were the least contaminated (0.28%). There was a positive association between the presence of dirt on the notes and contamination by parasites (p>0.05). The cysts, oocysts, or ova isolated from the notes were Entamoeba histolytica(4.7%), Giardia Iamblia(1.90A»), Entamoeba coli(1.7%), Endolimax nana(1.4%), Balantidium 00/;(0.85%), Ascaris lumbricoides(1.75%), Tricostrongylus(0.85%), Hookworm(0.S5%), Taenia spp.(0.2%) and Isospora belli(1.15%). This study shows that the currency in circulation is not only poorly handled but it is a potential source of contracting parasitic infections. An enhanced campaign against the abuse in handling the currency notes and the need to maintain good personal hygiene is recommended.

Journal of Biomedical Investigation Vol. 3 (2) 2005: pp. 16-20