By Emenuga, VN; Ebede, SO, Offor, CC, Ifedi, IC, Oguwike, FN (2023). Greener Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health, 11(1): 48-52.

Greener Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health ISSN: 2354-2381 Vol. 11(1), pp. 48-52, 2023 Copyright ©2023, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. https://gjournals.org/GJEPH

Article’s Title & Authors

Potential Virulent Bacterial and Fungi Loads in Belgium Clothes Sold in Market Areas of Enugu State

Emenuga, V.N¹; Ebede, S.O²; Offor, C.C³; Ifedi, I.C⁴; Oguwike, F.N^4*

¹ Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, University of Nigeria Enugu Campus Enugu.

² Department of Medical Microbiology College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Ituku-Ozalla Enugu State.

³ Department of Medical Biochemistry Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Uli Campus, Anambra State.

⁴ Department of Physiology, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Uli Campus, Anambra State.

INTRODUCTION

The occasional epidemic of skin diseases viz rashes, pustules, eczema skin leprosy, content dermatitis which have revenged man and still ravaging some villages in the 3^rd world countries cannot be far from Belgium clothes (Okrika clothes) mistakenly bought from markets.

Nigeria is a country made up of six geopolitical zones in West Africa. Some populations are rich, some are middle classed people, some are poor and others are living below poverty.

These fellows, poor and below poverty have no option than to resort to Belgium clothes as the only means of clothing themselves.

Okrika also known by others as cool monikers like Tokunbo, Belgium, bend-down-select etc. is the business of buying (and re-selling) of family used clothing, shoes, belts, cars and anything that can be sold for a price less than that of the brand new version.

Okrikais actually the name of a coastal town in Rivers State Nigeria, situated on a small island south of Port Harcourt. They speak the Okrika language and Igbo is also a common language there. Being a Port town, it is the location where slaves were bought and sold in the 17^th century before the abolition of slave trade. This has emerged to the name Okrika, referring to second hand trading ever since. Okrika items come from many places predominantly the United States, the United Kingdom and some countries in Europe and Asia. These fairly used items come in various grades and are packed as such depending on their states; that is how close they are to the original in quality or their level of fading. First grade bales are rated as the best being that they are next to new brands in quality. You also have a second grade which is good as well and then third grade which is lowest and attracts the cheapest price.

Clothing provides a barrier between the skin and the external environment and serves a variety of functions which includes protection from harmful uv rays, social and cultural purposes and thermoregulation.

Each garment worn by a person being the very first garment, is likely to have hosted some microbes, and served as a mechanism for the transfer of microbes to others and simultaneously created conditions on the body that have favoured still other microbes (Deaja et al, 2020).

The relationship between microbes and clothing is of great significance to palaeo-history, history, fashion, medicine and public health. Microorganisms are generally regarded as living forms that are microscopic in size (Cruishank, 1973) and relatively simple usually unicellular in structure. The diameter of the smallest body that can be resolved and seen clearly with the naked eye is about 100nm.

Bacteria:

Bacteria are microscopic unicellular organisms which can be classified into the following type of cell; the ovoid, or spheroid called coccus, the red, or cyclindrical bacillus, the curved vibro, the spiral shaped spirillum and coil shaped spirochaetes. The coccus (plural cocci) is sized 0.5-1.0µm in diameter, cocci generally have one axis approximately equal to any other axis; sometimes the cell in Bacteria can be a commensal (nonpathogenic) or pathogenic and so are adapted to overcoming the normal defences of the body to establish their growth in the tissues, producing poisonous substances or toxins often causing damage to the tissue and thus the manifestation of disease.

Fungi:

Fungi are distinctively different from bacteria in terms of size and form. They are much larger. Each vegetative cell measuring 2-10µm wide with a more complex morphological structure. Fungi as a group include moulds, mushroom and yeast which form a major entity of eukaryotic cells called Eumycota. They are classified among the higher protista group of living cells along with the protozans while bacteria are basically prokaryotes and so are regarded as lower protista.

Like the bacteria, fungi are ubiquitously found in diverse habitats (Abbey 1995). Some are metabolically versatile, surviving on several types of substrate such as cork, wax and even plastics. They can also be found in rubber and fabrics.

Our curiosity to embark on this study, stemmed from sudden skin diseases such as contact dermatitis, eczema and sometimes leprosy that can be seen in victims who ignorantly may have contacted the disease by wearing improperly washed okrika garments.

Uses of Belgium (Okrika) clothes

They are used as items worn to enclose or cover the body from nakedness. Early modern humans developed more specialized cold-weather clothing typically involving layers that provided better insulation as they moved into glacial Europe.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Experimental design:

100 clothing materials consisting of blouses, gowns, skirts, bra and trousers were selected carefully from Okrika sellers. 20 pieces each of these clothing materials were collected from sellers before being washed for this study within one month duration. The seller were from Ogbete main market, New Market and Ochanja Market, all located in Enugu State of Nigeria.

Bacteriological and Fungi Methods:

Swab samples were collected from these clothing materials by using wet sterile swab sticks and cultured in blood agar medium, sabouried agar media, Mackonkey agar and Nutrient agar media by method of cultural techniques as described by Baker and Silverton, 1998. The cultural samples were allowed to incubate in anaerobic condition in an incubator for 24-48hrs before reading out and examining the isolated organisms. Catalase and coagulase tests were done using the procedure described by Baker et al, 1998. Gram staining test was carried out using the procedure described by Baker et al, 1998. Yeast cells of fungi origin were identified by plating the samples in saboureid agar.

Staphylococci:

To identify staphylococcus aureus, appropriate dilutions were plated in duplicate plates of manitol salt agar (Oxford) and incubated at 30-32⁰C for 48-72hrs. Ten colonies from countable plates were picked and placed on slides, and tube coagulase tests were done (Baker and Silverton 1998).

RESULTS

The results obtained from the research work were represented with histogram

Figure 1: shows the histogram of various bacteria and fungi isolated from all the type of clothes

Figure 2: Indicates the possible fungi infections that are associated with okrika wears

DISCUSSION

The potential bacteria and fungi loads in Belgium clothes have been studied. It can be seen from this research study that many virulent bacteria and fungi organisms were few. (Fig. 1 ). The acidity of the skin surface of pH 4.5-5.0 (Elias, 2017) helps create unfavourbale growth conditions for many pathogenic microorganisms (Fluhr et al, 2022). While simultaneously favouring the growth of commensal bacteria such as staphylococcus spp, corynbacterium spp, and fungi such as rhizopus, mucor spp and Aspergilus niger (fig 1) which themselves may end in preventing the growth of pathogenic microorganisms (Grice et al, 2011, Cogen et al, 2008). Commensal skin microbes tend to be species from a subset of taxa that are tolerant of acidity and have mechanisms that allow them to subsist on the nutrient deficient resources available in sweat, sebum and the stratum corneum (Byrd et al, 2018).

The study shows that bacterial microbes such as staphylococcus viridians (55%) and yeast organisms (14%) (Figure 1) top all the bacteria, Aspergillus specie 5%, E. coli 4%, proteus 3%, penicillin spp 3%, pseudomonas 4%, and fungi organisms, microsporum spp 3%, mucor spp 4%, rhizopus 1%, trichodermaviride 2%, Thermomyces spp 2% and clodosporium herbarum 1% are found in Okrika gown and blouses of women.

Most of these organisms occur due to age, diet, genetic background and type of cloth worn. Skin friction of textiles largely depends on factors such as fibre and fabric structure, material and textile quality (vilhema et al, 2016, Hipler et al, 2006).

Friction has been implicated in skin ailments such as kerotosis, follicularis, and can exacerbate conditions such as atopic dermatitis (Hipler 2006), while prolonged pressure on various body parts due to clothes, Bracelets, tight trousers worn can cause superficial abrasion and tissue deformation (vilhena2016). These conditions may potentially favour some bacteria (fig 1& 2) species over others. More over fibre dyeing and finishing can cause skin irritation which may lead to allergic contact dermatitis and might also affect skin microbial composition.

Skin occlusion by clothing may elevate the skin pH, compromising skin barrier function, which could favour the growth of pathogenic bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus and streptococcus pyogenes (Aly et al, 1979, Zhai et al, 2022).

Contact dermatitis and Eczema are the fungi infections that are commonly contacted through okrika clothes (fig 3) as seen in this research. This maladies could result from putting on of unwashed and dry cleaned okrika clothes bought by villagers from the local markets. The incidence of leprosy is very minimal though it occurs once in a while from okrika wears. Spores are not killed by the mild wet heat of laundering, so their destruction in clothes will require boiling or formaldehyde vapour.

The practice of washing, dry cleaning and pressing of wears from Okrika is very essential in order to kill any bacteria or fungi that is growing in the clothes kept for sale in the markets.

It can be concluded that presence of pathogenic fungi and bacteria as seen in this research study in okrika clothes could make the clothes unfit to put on except the clothes are subjected to thorough washing, pressing with hot pressing iron before it is deemed fit for wearing.

REFERENCES

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Baker F.J, Silverton R.E (1998). Method of anaerobic cultivation of bacteria. Introduction to Medical laboratory Technology, 7^th Edition Butter-worth publication P290-291.

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