Authors

Discussion

Food-handlers with poor personal hygiene working in food-service establishments could be potential sources of infection due to pathogenic organisms. The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of biological (bacteria and intestinal parasites) among 419 food-handlers working in the four tertiary institutions in Calabar municipal, cross river state Nigeria. Fingernail contents of both the hands, urine and stool specimens were collected from all the 419 food-handlers. The samples were examined for bacteria and intestinal parasites following standard procedures.

 Coagulase-negative staphylococci were the predominant bacteria species (19.33%) isolated from fingernail contents, followed by Staphylococcus aureus (13.13%). Bacteria specie isolated from urine samples showed coag neg staph (16.71%) as the most dominance followed by S.aureus (13.60%). Nose bacteria showed S.epidermis dorminance (28.88%).In intestinal parasites detected in the stools of the food-handlers, Thrichuria richuris dorminated (13.60%) followed by Ascaris lumbricoides (13.13%). The least infection of parasites is Schistosoma mansonia (02.86%) and Blastocyst (02.39%). The distribution of individual pathogens showed that coag neg staph (15.44%) is the leading bacteria among study group while Thrichuria trichuris (05.83%) is leading in parasitic infection.

Prevalence of infection among groups of food handlers recorded hawkers (39.88%) as the most infected followed by restaurant attendants (32.62%), while the least infection is among shop attendants (27.51%).

The findings emphasize the importance of food-handlers as potential sources of infections and suggest health institutions for appropriate hygienic and sanitary control measures.

Key words: Bacteria, Food-handlers, Hygiene, Intestinal Parasitic, foodborn diseases.