Bacterial Infections among Restaurant Workers Offered Meals in Some Restaurants in Mukalla City/Hadhramout, Yemen

Hassan Pyar and Wedad M. Al-Haik

Background and Objective: Food handlers with poor personal hygiene who work in foodservice establishments could be potential infection sources. This study aims to identify the types of bacterial infection among workers who provide meals as a source of contamination in Mukalla restaurants, Hadhramout, Yemen. Materials and Methods: Bacteria were isolated on a general and selective medium and then their phenotypic characteristics and biochemical assays were examined, as well as a disk agar diffusion test. Results: The results showed that the contamination rate of the samples taken from workers who provide meals was 36 samples from the total 48 samples and the most contaminated samples were isolated from hands followed by noses and clothes. The high contaminated samples were workers with primary education followed by secondary education and illiterate with 52.7, 30.6 and 16.7%, respectively. The isolates were gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria with 55.6 and 44.4%, respectively. Escherichia coli showed the highest percentage (47.2%) among the isolated bacteria. Antibiotic sensitivity test showed that imipenem was a higher resistance with all isolates while tetracycline was sensitive against E. coli and Micrococcus sp. Conclusion: Significant bacterial infection was detected among restaurant workers as a source of contamination. These findings underscore the crucial importance of preventative measures and extensive primary health care and hygiene training.

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