ASSESSMENT OF OCULAR BACTERIAL FLORA AMONG WELDERS IN AUCHI COMMUNITY, EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

The eye, a functionally and structurally complex organ, experiences a variety of bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections. Bacteria are major causative agents of eye infections that can lead to loss of vision. Bacteria normal flora is a microorganism which are found on the eyelids and conjunctiva, they maintain a homeostatic state with the antimicrobial enzyme lysosome found in tears. Welders are at an increased risk of developing ocular infections due to exposure to various occupational hazards such as welding flames, ultraviolet radiation, and metallic particles. This study was carried out to examine the ocular bacterial flora and antibiotics susceptibility pattern among welders and compare them with dwellers of same community. Samples was randomly collected from welders in Auchi. A sterile swap stick was used to collect the samples aseptically and analysed in the microbiology laboratory within 4- 6 hours of collection. The samples were maintained on peptone broth in test tubes and about 1 ml of the overnight peptone broth culture was transferred into sterile petri dishes containing the culture media (nutrient, blood and MacConkey agar). Standard microbiological and biochemical protocols were used for isolation, characterization and identification of the bacterial isolates. The result obtained was analysed using the statistical package for social science software package version 22.0. The data was presented in tables using descriptive statistics that is frequency and percentages. 60 participants between the ages of 18 and 55 who volunteered for this study were used to gather a total of 60 samples of which 40 where welders and 20 were non-dwellers. These comprised of more males (85.6%) and less females (15.4%) as most people who weld in that environ were mostly male, the minimum age of these participant was (20) while the maximum was (55). these participants had a mean age of (37.63±10.277). the prevalent bacteria found among welders were S. AUREUS, P. VULGARIS, BACILLUS SUBSTILLUS were found in both welders and non-welders.  KEYWORDS: Ocular infections, Welders, Sterile swap stick, Prevalence, Petri dish, MacConkey agar