Food handlers may be carrying a wide range of enteropathogens and have been implicated in the transmission of many infections to the public in the community and to patients in hospitals. The spread of disease via food handlers is a common and persistent problem worldwide. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess prevalence of intestinal parasites, Salmonella and Shigella among food handlers of Addis Ababa University Student’s Cafeteria, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In this study 45.3% and 3.5% of the food handlers were positive for intestinal parasites and Salmonella, respectively. The high prevalence of intestinal parasites (45.3%) in this study among food-handlers was in agreement with the findings of other studies conducted in Ethiopia like Bahir Dar Town (41.1%) [6] and elsewhere in Venezuela, Zulia state (48.7%) [7], Minas Gerais, Brazil (47.1%) [8] and Irbid, Jordan (48.0%) [9]. The higher rates in this study may be attributed to improper hygiene of food handlers.
Higher prevalence of intestinal parasites were reported in Ethiopia from Hawassa, (63%) [10], Mekele University 49.4% [11], Uberlandia and Sanliurfa, Southeastern Anatolia (52.2%) [12], Abeokuta, Nigeria (97%) [13] when compared with present study, however lower prevalence was reported in North west Ethiopia (29.1%) [5] and Khuzestan, Southwest of Iran (7.78%) [14], North India (1.3 to 7%) [15], Turkey (8.8%) [16], Thailand 10.3% [17], Makkah 31.94% [18], Gaza Strip, Palestine (24.3%) [19], Khartoum, Sudan (29.4%) [20], Omdurman, Sudan (30.1%) [3]. This discrepancy may be largely due to epidemiological, environmental distribution difference, poor personal hygiene practices, environmental sanitation and ignorance of health-promotion practices.
In this study the dominant parasite from food handlers were E. histolytica/dispar 68 (70.8%) followed by G. lamblia 18 (18.8%). This was similar with the work of Selman CA [16] Turkey who identified E. histolytica (69.9%) and G. lamblia (24.6%) as commonest parasite, while study done in Ethiopia also identified (E. histolytica/dispar) 12.8% and G. lamblia 7. 0% as the most leading parasite [6], but study conducted in Hawassa town [10], Ethiopia, Zulia State (13.4%) [7], Kahuzestan, Southwest Iran (4.5%) [14] identified G. lamblia as the leading parasite followed by other parasites.
In the present study six Salmonella (3.5%) was isolated from stool culture of food handlers, similarly study done in Kumasi, Ghana among food vendors of 258 identified typhoidal Salmonellae from six people, giving a carriage rate of 2.3% [21]. This slight difference may be due to large number of participants involved in Kumasi, Ghana study when compared with present study.
Study conducted in Tamilnadu, India identified 65.7% and 79% Salmonella from finger nail contents and nail cuts respectively among hotel works which is alarming and indicated that main sources of pathogen transfer such as Salmonella is through improper hand washing [22].
There are also studies in agreement with present study in identifying low prevalence of Salmonella in food handlers like study done in Ethiopia, Bahir Dar Town (1.6%) [6] and elsewhere in Irbid, Jordan (6%) [9], Omdurman, Sudan (1.3%) [3].
In the present study, no Shigella species were recovered from stool culture of food handlers. However, Shigella was the most common among enteropathogens isolated among food handlers in a tertiary care hospital of North India (13.3%) [15].
This study indicated that no statistically significant association between the frequency of parasitic and bacterial infection and age, sex, service year, hand washing habit after toilet, food preparation training, finger nail status and medical checkup. This may be due to low sample size. Similarly, finding in Khartoum, Sudan showed that no statistical significant association particularly with parasitic infection comparable for age, sex and service year [20].
All isolates were resistant at least to three of antimicrobials tested and one isolate was resistant to trimethoprim. Study done in Bahir Dar showed Salmonella typhi (S. Typhi) had high resistances against ampicillin, cotrimoxazole, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, gentamicin and norfloxacillin indicated that antimicrobial resistance of S. typhi is an increasing concern [6].