Faecal contamination of commuters’ hands in main vehicle stations in Dhaka city, Bangladesh

Background Faecal-oral carriage via hands is an important transmission pathway for diarrhoeal pathogens. The level of faecal contamination of commuters’ hands in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was examined in this study. Methods A total of 900 hand washing samples, including both left and right hands, were coll...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2016-06, Vol.110 (6), p.367-372
Main Authors: Islam, Mohammad S., Mahmud, Zahid H., Zaman, Rokon U., Islam, Mohammad R., Gope, Partha S., Islam, Khairul, Jahan, Hasin, Opel, Aftab, Shaha, Ganesh C., Faruque, Shah M., Clemens, John D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacterial Infections - transmission
Bangladesh
Cities
Clostridium perfringens
Escherichia coli
Feces - microbiology
Hand - microbiology
Hand Disinfection
Humans
Seasons
Streptococcus
Transportation
Water Microbiology
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Summary:Background Faecal-oral carriage via hands is an important transmission pathway for diarrhoeal pathogens. The level of faecal contamination of commuters’ hands in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was examined in this study. Methods A total of 900 hand washing samples, including both left and right hands, were collected during one year to cover three different seasons in Bangladesh: winter, summer and rainy seasons. Standard membrane filtration technique was used to quantify total coliforms (TC), faecal coliforms (FC), faecal streptococci (FS), Escherichia coli (EC) and Clostridium perfringens (CP). Results The hands of the commuters were contaminated with TC, FC, FS, CP and EC. The TC, FC, FS, CP and EC counts were 1.95, 1.65, 4.04, 1.54 and1.46 log10 colony forming units (cfu) in the left hand; and 2.13, 1.82, 4.11, 1.52 and 1.61 log10 cfu in the right hand, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in counts of left and right hands. The highest counts were observed for FS in all seasons. Conclusions This evidence based study may be used to provide interventions to reduce the contamination of commuters’ hands through washing with detergent and, thus, help to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
ISSN:0035-9203
1878-3503
DOI:10.1093/trstmh/trw037