Bacteria Contamination of Lecture Halls at a Higher Learning Institution in Zambia: The Public Health Risk

Pathogenic microorganisms in public areas can be a critical concern in public health, because these pathogens can spread easily from one person to another.Public or community areas such as public transportation systems, university lecture halls, restaurants, schools and day care centres can bring a large number of people together and facilitate the transmission of pathogenic microbes.This study was a cross sectional.It was designed to evaluate bacterial contamination and antimicrobial resistance of bacterial isolates from two lecture halls at a higher learning institution in Lusaka, Zambia from January 2023 to November 2023.The bacterial isolates included, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Shigella spp, Enterobacter aerogenes were prevalent on door knobs, and Staphylococcus aureus.Pseudomans aeruginosa were prevalent on wall surfaces.This study established that majority of the bacteria isolates were susceptible to Amoxicillin, Ciprofloxacin, Chloramphenicol, Gentamicin, Sulphamethizole, Nalidixic acid and tetracycline and all of the isolates were resistant to penicillin.Therefore, the contamination of surfaces and door knobs in lecture halls could be a source of infection which would be difficult to treat with some commonly used antibiotics reported to be resistance in this study.