ABSTRACT

This study determined the antibiogram of bacteria species isolated from used towels, amongst students of MOUAU, of which Four (4) categories of fairly used towels samples (hand towel, face towel, paper towel, and body towel) were procured from students within Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. This major bacteria species isolated include; Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella species and Proteus species respectively. From the findings in this study it was observed that Staphylococcus aureus was the most predominant and highest occurred isolates in the used towel samples at 9(47.3%), followed by Escherichia coli 6(31.5%), Salmonella species 3(15.7%) and Proteus species 1(5.2%), while among the used towel samples investigated for bacterial contaminants, Hand and Face Towel had the highest number of bacterial isolates at 6(31.5%) each. From the present study, the antimicrobial susceptibility and resistant patterns of bacterial isolates from the sample cultures revealed that Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa had the highest (26mm) degree of sensitive to the antibiotics drug Ciprofloxacin (10mcg) and Streptomycin (30mcg) respectively, while Streptococcus spp showed high multiple drug resistance to antibiotics used. The antibiogram of the bacteria species from the used towel showed that Ciprofloxacin (CPX) 10mcg, Streptomycin (S) 30mcg and Levofloxacin (LEX) 20mcg exhibited higher percentage of sensitivity against the isolates at 94.7%, 73.6% and 84.2% respectively. The presence of these organisms indicates poor personal hygiene. Besides this, multidrug resistant bacteria that can be easily spread during food preparation, via used hand towels are a serious threat to human health. Therefore, public education or awareness should be employed in order to educate people/students on the effect of poor hygiene and its consequences.