Aims: This study examined the microbial flora contamination of the Ghanaian paper currency notes and its antibiotic-resistance in Ejura Municipal, Ashanti Region, Ghana. Study Design: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study designed to assess the profile of microflora contamination of the Ghanaian paper currency notes and its antibiotic-resistance in the Ejura Municipality. Place and Duration of Study: The research was conducted in Ejura, a town in the Ejura Sekyeredumase Municipal District of the Ashanti region of Ghana, from January to May 2019 Methodology: A total of 70 GH¢ notes, 15 each of GH ¢1, GH ¢2, and GH ¢5, 10 each of GH ¢10 and GH ¢20, and 5 of GH ¢50, were randomly sampled from people in various shops, canteens, and commercial drivers. The surfaces of each GH¢ note were gently swabbed, and tenfold serial dilution was inoculated on plate count agar (PCA), MacConkey agar, mannitol salt agar, and deoxycholate citrate agar. PCA, MCA, DCA, and MSA were the media used for the total viable count, Gram-negative rods, Gram-negative enteric bacilli, and Staphylococcus isolation in that order. For bacterial identification, the study used appropriate laboratory and biochemical tests. The data was analyzed using SPSS-IBM version 20.0. Results: It was found that 95.2 % of the 70 GH¢ notes tested positive for one or more bacterial isolates. On each GH¢ note, mean counts on PCA ranged from 3.0 cfu/ml ×105 to 4.8 cfu/ml ×105. Of 124 bacteria isolated. 36 (29.03 %), 32 (25.81%), 16 (12.90 %), 20 (16.13%), 13 (10.48 %), and 7 (5.66 %) were from GH¢1, GH¢2, GH¢10, GH¢5, GH¢20, and GH¢50, respectively. Bacterial isolates were Escherichia coli (25.81%), Staphylococcus aureus (18.55%), coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (15.32%), Klebsiella species (12.10%), Salmonella species (9.68%), Shigella species (8.06%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7.26%), and Proteus species (3.23%). Meat shops, commercial drivers, canteens, grocery stores, and vegetable shops contributed 25.81 %, 20.16 %, 19.35 %, 17.74 %, and 16.94 % of GH¢ notes respectively. There was 100% resistance of the isolates to Erythromycin (ERY), and Cotrimoxazole (COT). Amikacin (AMK) was the most effective among the antibiotics as 75% of the isolates were susceptible to it. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that the GH¢ notes are heavily contaminated with potentially pathogenic bacteria that are highly resistant to the most widely used antibiotics and are a threat to public health.
There has been a lot of short backs from the use of the usual conventional anti-cancer therapy for treating cancer cells. Conventional anti-cancer therapy involves the use of chemical chemotherapeutics and radiation to treat cancer whereas sometimes it may include the use of surgery, hormones, and targeted therapy. These drawbacks and ineffectiveness of such therapies sometimes can aggravate other types of illness and cause tumor cells to become resistant to them. In an attempt to resolve these shortcomings, a new era of an alternative anti-tumor therapy has emerged which exhibits much greater specificity and efficacy in treating cancer. This new knowledge explores the use of microbes and oncolytic viruses as potential anti-cancer therapies. Most of these microbes and viruses are engineered or their metabolites are used as potential weapons for treating cancer cells. This review therefore discuss the role of microbiome and oncolytic viruses in controlling cancer. It also outline four ways through which microbiome control cancer treatment. We reviewed the microbiome metagenomic assessment, explained some evidence of microbiome oncogenesis, then again investigated the response and toxicity of microbiome on immunotherapy, and finally discuss the impact of microbiome activities on chemotherapy. We reported that, the metagenomic study of the 16s rRNA gene sequence plays a significant role in detecting bacterial species in natural specimens and establishing phylogenetic relationships in controlling cancer. The review again established that, some metabolites and vitamins produced by bacteria may be vital tools for interactions with epithelial and cancer cells for tumor growth suppression. We also found that, the efficacy of some chemotherapies especially the use of Cyclophosphamide (CTX) were microbiota-dependent. Moving forward, there should be an establishment of methods that will not undermine ethical issues when trying this therapy on humans. Moreover, safety measures should be taken to manipulate the composition of the microbiota with the aid of a strict screening system to eliminate harmful microbes before applying them.
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