title: A preliminary bacterial study of Egyptian paper money.
abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the extent of contamination of some of the most used paper denominations of the Egyptian currency (25 PT). Sixty-nine bills in circulation were collected from November 2003 through January 2004. A swab from each bill was cultured on nutrient agar and incubated at 37 degrees C for 48 h. Results showed that over 65% of these bills had a bacterial count above 5.0 cm2. A preliminary identification of organisms present on these paper notes was done using selected Petri dishes with well-defined colonies.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Ain Helwan, Cairo, Egypt. fkeldars@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Farida M S El-din
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: El-Dars
authors.forename: Wael M H
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Hassan
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003132:Commerce; D003625:Data Collection; D004534:Egypt; D010209:Paper