Faecal micro-organisms on the hands of carriers: Escherichia coli as model for Salmonella.

To evaluate the public health hazard caused by Salmonella carriers as food handlers, a study was carried out to gather more quantitative data about faecal contamination of hands after stools. Faecal E. coli was used as a model bacterium for Salmonella. In total 92 subjects cooperated in this study. The hand was sampled before toilet use, and also after stools, with or without washing of the hands. Besides E. coli the number of Enterobacteriaceae was also determined. It appeared that hands may be contaminated with Enterobacteriaceae, regardless of toilet use, for a well before as after stools about 60% of the sampled hands carried a detectable number of Enterobacteriaceae. That is why the presence of Enterobacteriaceae on hands is not a good indicator for toilet hygiene. In 4% of the samples before stools and in 25% of the samples taken after stools E. coli could be detected (> 20 CFU/sample). The average 10log CFU of E. coli in the positive samples taken before and after stools were about the same: 2.30 per sample. Hand washing after stools reduced the numbers of Enterobacteriaceae and E. coli on the hands. It was concluded that symptomless Salmonella excretors in the period starting two weeks after infection form only a low risk in carrying over Salmonella by their hands to food. Especially if normal hygiene is practiced like washing hands after stools, the number of contaminated hands will be very low and furthermore the number of faecal micro-organisms will be very small.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)