Volume: 3: Issue-1: Jan - Mar-2012 ISSN 0976-4550 Accepted: Oct-2011 Short Communication PAPER CURRENCIES, A POTENTIAL CARRIER OF PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS Debajit Borah 1* , Pratap Parida 2 and Tarun Kumar 3 1* Center for studies in Biotechnology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh-786004 (India) dborah89@gmail.com 2 Bioinformatics Centre (BIF), Center for studies in Biotechnology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh-786004 (India) pratap_parida2007@yahoo.com 3 Beehive (PG) College of Advanced Studies, Selaqui, Dehradun-248197 (India) tarunk246@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Microbial analysis of 500 Indian currencies collected from people of different categories across the state Assam (India) has shown the presence of various pathogenic microorganisms viz, E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp., Streptococcus spp. and Staphylococcus sp. which are known to be responsible for watery diarrhea, mouth skin diseases, pneumonia, respiratory track diseases, gastro intestinal diseases etc. This may be due to the climatic conditions of most of the third world Asian countries which favors the optimum growth conditions for the microorganisms and a huge number of carriers handling them due to larger population in these regions. Keywords: E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp., Streptococcus spp., Staphylococcus spp. INTRODUCTION Microorganisms are found in almost everywhere in our environment. Some microorganisms are useful but some are pathogenic. Though we ignore, unknowingly we used to bear many pathogenic microorganisms through some of the media which we use in our everyday life. One such media is our currency, which is used by people of all categories (Abrams et al. 1972). The same currency is circulated among so many people in a single day. Sometime it is seen that people used to shuffle their paper currencies using their spit and some time children used to put coins in their mouth. Though we ignore such things, but it may cause some skin diseases, digestive track diseases, respiratory track diseases etc (Anderson et. al. 1991). Most of the things we use in our everyday life work as a potential carrier of pathogenic microorganisms. One such media is our paper currencies. Those microorganisms can come into our body through hand to mouth operations if proper hygiene is not maintained and can cause severe stomach disease, respiratory track disease, skin disease etc. In our present study, microbial analysis of 500 Indian paper currencies were carried out to evaluate the presence of pathogenic microorganisms collected from various regions of the state Assam (India). International Journal of Applied Biology and Pharmaceutical Technology Page: 23 Available online at www.ijabpt.com