HEALTH RISK ASSOCIATED WITH HANDLING OF PAPER CURRENCIES

Paper currency notes could be one of the most potential vehicles to transmit diseases amongst the people. The daily transactions have made the paper currency to pass through many hands and pathogens become imposed on them before they are finally deposited in banks. Modern scientific studies have confirmed the presence of various pathogenic bacteria on paper currencies. Amongst others, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Citrobacter spp., Mycobacterium leprae, Shigella sp., Streptococcus spp., Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Klebsiella spp. and Escherichia coli were the dominant contaminants of paper currency samples. Furthermore, researches have also shown that paper currencies could be contaminated by several fungal pathogens like Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus spp., Penicillium spp., Candida spp., Trichoderma spp., Trichoderma viride, Alternaria tenuis, A. paraticus, Sporotrichum spp. Fusarium spp. Besides, several studies revealed that, paper moneys were also contaminated by parasitic species of different helminthes that include parasitic nematodes and tapeworm like Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, Enterobius vermicularis, hookworm, Strongyloides stercoralis, and Dipylidium caninum. Thus, paper currency is generally contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms and this contamination may play a significant role in the transmission of potentially harmful microorganisms.