You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
The bacteriological evaluation of bedsheets among students staying off campus in Ekosodin was evaluated in this study. A standard questionnaire was designed to obtain socio-demographic information and bedsheet-handling practices from respondents in Ekosodin. The bacteriological evaluation involved using swab sticks moistened with sterile saline to sample a defined dimension of the bedsheet (150 cm2 ) and culture using the pour plate method. Cultural, morphological and biochemical tests were used for identification of the bacteria. Phenotypic virulence properties such as hemolysin, lipase and DNAse production were evaluated, and the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method was employed for antibacterial sensitivity testing. The results revealed that 92.6% of respondents who filled out the questionnaire were students of the University of Benin, while 62.1% were residents off campus, with 20% of the respondents residing in the Ekosodin community. 63.2% of the respondents were females, while 90.1% refused to disclose their undergraduate degree levels. The percentage of students with student-sized beds was 56.2%, while most rooms had 2 – 3 occupants (43.2%). Based on the number of persons using the bed, the heterotrophic bacterial counts of bedsheets ranged from log10 1.42±0.53 cfu/cm2 (for just one person) to log10 2.63±0.09 cfu/cm2 . The identified bacterial isolates were Serratia marcescens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus mycoides, and Salmonella enterica. Bacillus (42.86%) and Serratia (28.57%) were the most frequently occurring bacterial isolates. The phenotypic virulence properties of the isolates showed that they were capable of hemolysin and lipase production and were negative for DNAse production. All isolates were resistant to tetracycline, colistin, metronidazole and augmentin. They were, however, sensitive to gentamicin, ciprofloxacin and clindamycin. The multiple antibiotic resistance index of the bacterial isolates ranged from 0.56 (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) to 0.67 (Serratia marcescens). The isolates, therefore, are multidrug-resistant bacteria and are of public health importance because they were above the permissible limit of 0.2.
