Parasite Contamination of Nigerian Currencies in Ibadan City, South-West Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the level of contamination of naira notes by parasites in Ibadan city. Naira notes of all denominations (₦5, ₦10, ₦20, ₦50, ₦100, ₦200, ₦500 and ₦1000) were randomly collected from students, butchers, food vendors and petrol stations, and checked for parasites using standard parasitological techniques. Out of a total of 192 naira notes collected, 27 (14.0%) were found to be contaminated with parasites. None of the clean and polymer notes were contaminated with any parasite. The parasites recovered from paper notes included Enterobius vermicularis (3.6%), hookworm (3.1%), A. lumbricoides (1.6%) and Strogyloides stercoralis (1.0%). The very dirty/mutilated naira notes were more contaminated (32.8%) than the dirty ones, (9.4%). The one hundred naira (₦100) notes had the highest contamination of 41.7% followed by the ₦200 and ₦500 notes which had 29.2% each. According to sources of currency, contamination was highest on notes collected from food vendors and butchers, while notes from students and petrol stations had lesser contamination There was a statistically significant association between  the rate of parasitic contamination of the currency and the denomination of the currency and between parasite contamination and physical condition of the currency (p < .05) while the association between the prevalence of parasitic contamination of the naira notes and the source was found not statistically significant  (p > .05.). The result of this study shows that bank notes can serve as a vehicle for the transmission of pathogenic organisms. Good personal hygiene practices such as washing of hands after handling dirty currency is recommended to curtail the spread of these parasites.