MICROBIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF SOME DAY CARE FLOORS WITHIN ILORIN METROPOLIS

Abstract

There are increasing number of daycare centres in many cities where nursing mother keep their children during working hours. Many of these children come home with episode of diseases. Floor is one of the avenues for disease transmission. It is therefore necessary to carry out microbiological investigation of these floor surfaces. Ten day-care centres within Ilorin metropolis were involved in this study. Swab samples were collected from an area of 25cm by 25cm of the floor at each location. The samples were analyzed and tested for total viable bacterial, faecal coliform, and fungal count. The bacterial count ranged from 1.8 x 10³ to 2.0 x 10⁴cfu/ml while the faecal coliform count ranged from 0 to 100 cfu/ml. Similarly, the fungal count ranged from 4.0 x 10² to 4.0 x 10³cfu/ml. A total of thirteen different bacterial isolates and six different fungal isolates were identified. The bacterial isolates were Bacillus licheniformis, Aeromonas sp., Bacillus coagulans, Micrococcus sedentarius, Staphylococcus aureus, Corynebacterium kutscheri, Bacillus megaterium, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Acinetobacter sp., Bacillus polymyxa, Corynebacterium sp., Citrobacter sp., and Proteus sp. while the fungal isolates were Aspergillus clavatus, Geotrichum candidum, Penicillium chrysogenum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Fusarium culmorum, and Aspergillus niger. It was concluded that some pathogenic microorganisms were present on the floors of some day care centres. Hence, there is need for the operators of the day care centres to improve on the level of hygiene; and the local health authorities need to regularly visit these day care centres to see if they are operating within the minimum standards.