Gender Difference In Microbial Load And Flora Of Hands Among Some Pharmacy Students, University Of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.

Abstract

The microbial load and Flora on the hands of 114 healthy looking students (57 males and 57 Females) of the Faculty oF Pharmacy, Universityof Benin, Benin City were investigated. The investigation involved washing of hands with sterile water, Filtering the resultant "wash-water" by use of the membrane Filter and thereafter resuspending the residual deposit on the membrane filter in appropriate medium For viable count, culturing, characterisation and identification. The common bacterial isolates encountered were Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus species, Escherichia coli, Klebiella pneumonia, Neisseria catarrhalis while the Fungal isolates were Candida albicans, Aspergillus species.