AUGUST 15 "LET GO OF THAT MONEY!"
Filthy lucre indeed. It seems
that paper money is a magnet for germs. A study presented at a meeting of
microbiologists Wednesday concluded that most paper currency is contaminated
with bacteria and could play a role in spreading disease. Dr. Peter Ender and
colleagues at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio,
collected dollar bills (swapping new bills for old) from patrons of a high
school stadium concession stand and of a local grocery store. Of the 68 bills they
collected and studied, only four were free of bacterial contamination. Five
contained types of bacteria that can commonly cause infections in healthy
people, including Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Fifty-nine
bills held bacteria that can cause significant infections in people who are
hospitalized or have depressed immune systems. These included various species
of Streptococcus, Enterobacter, Bacillus and Escherichia vulneris. "One-dollar
bills are widely used and each is exchanged many times," said Ender, who
presented the work at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Orlando , Fla.
"If some bills are contaminated with bacteria, there is potential to
spread these organisms from person to person." The longer you hold on
to the filthy lucre, the higher the chance of you catching the virus.
by Lee Bowman, Scripps Howard
News Service
from the Topeka Capital-Journal
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