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FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH SACHET AND THEIR SENSITIVITY TO ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Water is an important substance on earth. All plants and animals must have water to survive. If there was no water there would be no life on earth (Wikipedia, 2012).
Nevertheless, water is capable of causing illness after being contaminated with pathogens. Sachet water are water packaged in bags which are supposed to be treated before packaging but may become contaminated due to poor packaging processes.
Water borne pathogens are basically micro-organisms that can cause diseases when transmitted through taking of contaminated water (Lawton, 1999). The pathogens found in the drinking water pose a great risk to human health.
Micro-organisms, especially fungi can enter drinking water distribution systems through several contamination pathways, which includes treatment breakthrough, deficiencies in stored water facilities, Cross connections and during mains installation and maintenance. Once inside the water, the fungal species can become very established on the inner biofilms within distribution systems or can be suspended in the water (Marriott et al., 2003). Pathogenic micro-organisms associated with drinking water include parasites e.g. Giardia, Entamoeba histolytica, Viruses e.g. hepatitis A, bacteria which include Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella ( Schaub and Roberson, 1997). Giardia and Cryptosporium are among the widespread protozoan pathogens causing diarrhea and gastrointestinal problems in man world-wide (Smith and Lloyd, 1998).
Fungal genera that are also associated with drinking water includes Penicillium, Cladosporium, Aspergillus spp, Candida, Phialophora and Acremonium (Pierre and Kate, 2011). However, the growth of these fungi can be inhibited by some antifungals, such as Itraconazole, Clotrimazole, Amphotericin B, Echinocandins (Wikipedia, 2014).
The World health organization (W.H.O., 2013) reports that over 200 million urban dwellers in the world lack adequate and safe drinking water. Thus only 60% of the people in the developing countries such as Nigeria are estimated to have access to a water supply, and 36% of the people to sanitation facilities in the urban to rural areas (W.H.O, 2013).
1.2 Justification
One of the main sources of drinking water in sokoto metropolis is sachet water, these brands are produced and packaged by different industries. These industries put little attention in perfecting the processes involved to ensure water free from pathogens which ranges from filtration down to the packaging. It is due to this fact that it has become necessary for the examination of these sachet water products from different company for fungi that may be present and capable of causing infections and disease. Also, to determine the sensitivity of the fungi to some antifungal agents.
FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH SACHET AND THEIR SENSITIVITY TO ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS
FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH SACHET AND THEIR SENSITIVITY TO ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS
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