Bacteriological Assessment of Students' Pen

Pen, as a writing instrument that is passed from hand to hand, is likely to be contaminated with diseases causing microorganisms especially if handled with unclean hands or kept in dirty surroundings. This study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of bacterial contamination among the pen of students. 50 samples of the pen were collected randomly from students in Unity Secondary School Zungeru, Niger State, Nigeria, under aseptic conditions and were brought into the laboratory for analysis. Cooked meat media, MacConkey, and nutrient agar were used in quantification and isolation respectively. The bacterial were further sub cultured, identified and characterized by growing them on MacConkey and Chocolate agar, observing their morphological characteristic then Gram reaction and biochemical test were used for confirmation. Out of the 50 samples collected, 40(90%) were contaminated with different bacterial species which includes Streptococci sp. Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, Clostridium Sp., Neisseria Sp., and Klebsiella Sp., and 3.2x105, 5.0x105, 2.6x105, 1.8x105, 1.2x105 and 1.6x105 CFU/g respectively, with Staphylococcus aureus and Neisseria Sp, having the highest and the lowest colony forming unit respectively. However the population density of the bacteria isolates based on the frequency of occurrence includes E. coli (34%), which was dominant followed by Staphylococcus aureus (24%), Streptococci Sp. (12%), Clostridium Sp. (4%), Klebsiella Sp. (4%) and Neisseria Sp. (2%). This shows that pen can be a potential format for the transmission of pathogens. Therefore it is important to encourage higher compliance to hand washing and personal hygienic practices.