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Handballs as potential fomites:  Microbes present on handballs used by Swedish handball players
Örebro University, School of Science and Technology.
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Handball is a high intensity contact sport where its players throughout any games or practices encounter many risk factors that can cause infections. Risk factors include skin-to-skin contact, physical trauma, equipment sharing and contact with contaminated fomites for example. Athletic exercise equipment associated with hands or skin contact, exhibit a more dynamic and interchangeable microbial content than floors and mats in athletic facilities, due to them being in less contact with hands and skin. This study aimed to determine what kind of microbial composition handballs had and included both those used with and without resin. The grown isolates were taken from handball teams in a club located in Sweden, and with the use of MALDI-TOF the existing microbial composition of isolates was determined to species level. Handballs from three different groups was sampled; Girls age <16, using no resin; and men and women age >16 using resin. Hands from female players over >16 were also sampled. Out of the three groups with handballs and female hands, 77 respectively 33 microbial isolates were determined, with some, e.g. Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus being considered an infection risk. The CFU/cm² count between the groups varied, men had a higher CFU/cm² count compared to the women and girls’ teams respectively. The women and girls team had no significant difference in CFU/cm² count between themselves, leading to the interpretation that resin has no effect on microbial growth. The sample isolates shown to be speciated as S. aureus was tested for methicillin resistance and all showed to be methicillin sensitive. In conclusion, handballs can act as possible fomites, since they contain microbes that can cause infection.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. , p. 21
National Category
Biological Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-86242OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-86242DiVA, id: diva2:1473529
Subject / course
Biology
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Available from: 2020-10-06 Created: 2020-10-06 Last updated: 2023-11-13Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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More styles
Language
  • de-DE
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  • en-US
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  • nn-NB
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  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
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