A research report by Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology(JKUAT) and The US-Army Medical Research Unit- Kenya has placed phones, Ksh 50 note and Ksh 20 coin among the most contaminated items.
The researchers tested money and phones from 395 food handlers from 15 different types of food outlets in Nairobi and found that the two items were heavily tainted with disease-causing germs.
They tested money in all denominations from Ksh 1 coins to Ksh 1000 note and the report revealed that the most tainted was the Ksh 20 coin and the Ksh 50 note.
Among the germs found on the money was Staphylococcus species was the most prevalent.
The Staphylococcus species is known to cause several serious diseases among them Skin infections, Heart Infections, Bone infections, Pneumonia, food poisoning, and toxic shock.
The KEMRI report comes at a time when some counties are dealing with an outbreak of Cholera, the Nairobi county government urging residents to be cautious when it comes to food handling.
The study reports more than a third of the participants had no training in food handling, while 34 were sick at the time of the survey, some suffering from stomach problem.
A report by the Standard revealed that the most contaminated among the sampled currencies were from matatu touts which ranked very highly in the amount of disease-causing organisms as they carried coins collected from butchers, closely followed by roadside maize roasters and food kiosks. Most of the coins were found to be contaminated with faecal organisms.
Other pathogens found in the money and known to cause serious human diseases were Bacillus species, which may cause food poisoning, shock, meningitis, and blood poisoning.
