Microbiological Assessment of Car Doors and Steering Wheels at Benue State University, Makurdi: Public Health Implications

Abstract

Microbiological assessments of car surfaces remain a fundamental approach to control hotspots of microbial contamination. This study was aimed at assessing the level microbial contaminations associated with car doors and steering wheel of cars within the faculty of science, Benue state university, Makurdi. A total of forty (40) samples were collected in duplicates. These included twenty duplicate samples from car door handles and twenty duplicate samples from car steering wheels respectively using sterile swab sticks and transported to Charis Research and Diagnostic laboratory for analysis. The samples were analysed using cultural, biochemical and morphological techniques. The results revealed that the heterotrophic bacterial count range from 1.97 x 104 to2.41 x 104 CFU/cm2 while the fungi count range from 1.9 x 103 to 3.7 x 103 CFU/cm2. Staphylococcus spp. had the highest occurrence of 14(70%) and 9(45%), Proteus spp. had an occurrence of 6(30%) and 2(10%) for car door handles and car steering wheels while there was no detection of Salmonella in all the samples assessed. The fungi occurrence rate observed was Aspergillus spp. [7(35%)] for car door handle and 3(15%) for car steering wheel while Rhizopus spp. had a prevalence rate of 4(20%) for car door handle and 1(5%) for car steering wheel. This study affirmed that car surfaces could serve as a reservoir of potential pathogens. Hence, routine disinfection of these surfaces is very important.