Public health

This study was carried out to assess the microbiological quality of ready-to-eat papaya fruit from selected locations in Benin City. Standard bacteriological techniques using selective/differential media were employed for the isolation, purification and putative identification of selected bacterial isolates present in vended papaya fruits. The susceptibility and resistance of these bacterial isolates to common antibiotics was accessed. The public health implication of the identified isolates were also evaluated using their multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index.

Monitoring pathogen survival in polluted environmental media is useful as an early warning tool to forestall outbreaks of infections and safeguard public health. Survival of clinical strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi and Vibrio cholerae was monitored for 192 hours in pre-sterilised samples of domestic wastewater and sediment, agricultural wastewater and river water.

Genotoxicity testing represents a powerful line of evidence for assessing impacts from chemical contaminants in drinking water. In this study, fifteen brands of sachet water, five of which do not have the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) registration numbers, were collected in the Benin metropolitan city square in Edo State of Nigeria and subjected to cytological evaluation using the macroscopic and microscopic parameters in Allium cepa L.