Isolation Of Microorganisms From Toilet Door Handles In Mouau:- Onuabuchi, Chinezelum R

abstract Contracting infectious diseases from microbial contaminated toilet door handles is a potential threat to public health and safety. Therefore, this study evaluated the microbial contamination of door handle/knobs in selected public toilets within MOUAU. A total of 10 microbial samples were collected aseptically from both the internal and external parts of the main toilet door entrances leading to the male and female toilets of each selected building. The collected sample was placed in a transport medium and transported to the laboratory for Microbiological analysis. The predominant micioorganisms isolated were Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp, Escherichia coli, Shigella sp, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger. It was observed that Staphylococcus aureus is the most frequently occurring isolates from the toilet door handles with a percentage occurrence of (25.0%), followed by Shigella sp with a percentage occurrence of (21.9%), Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp with a percentage occurrence of (15.6%), then Aspergillus niger with an occurrence of (12.5%) whereas Aspergillus flavus had the least percentage occurrence of (9.4%). The antibiotics sensitivity test showed that Ciprofloxacin, and Ofloxacin), were the most effective against both the gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) and gram negative (Salmonella spp, Escherichia coli, and Shigella sp) bacterial isolates. In contrast, the isolates showed relatively lower resistance level to ampiclox and erythromycin. This study is relevant for public health and safety, as its findings reveal the presence of bacterial and fungal pathogens on toilet door handles, which is vital in preventing the spread ofinfectious disease.