Isolation of Microbes Associated With Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Keypads Studied at Rumuokoro Port Harcourt, Rivers State

The keypads of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are subjected to several microbial contaminations due to their large dermal contact by numerous users and different personal hygiene practice. The study investigated the bacterial diversity and level of contamination obtainable on the ATM keypads during transactions and antibiotics susceptibility pattern of the isolates. The population of culturable bacterial isolates was determined by plating. Isolates were characterized culturally, morphologically and biochemically. Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the isolates was determined using the disc diffusion method. The total culturable heterotrophic bacterial counts ranssged from 5.23 to 9.25 log cfu/g. The bacterial identified and frequency of occurrence is Staphylococcus aureus (17.5%), Escherichia coli (22.5%), Bacillus spp (17.5%), Salmonella spp (10.0%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10.0%), Proteus spp (7.5%) and Klebsiella spp (15.0%) respectively. Staphylococcus aureus were more susceptible to Chloramphenicol (37mm) and were more resistant to Rifampicin (00mm) and Levofloxacin (00mm) respectively. The Gram negative isolates in the study were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and gentamycin and more resistant to ceporex, nalidixic acid, septrin and ampicillin respectively. The highest gram negative isolates that showed more susceptible to all the used gram negative antibiotics were Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp while the lowest were Klebsiella spp and Proteus spp respectively. The study has revealed that bacterial contamination on ATM keypads is of health significance and could result to public health challenges if not properly managed. Therefore, adequate hand- washing hygienic practices and cleaning agents are advocated towards reducing the related ill- health among ATM users.