Natural contamination of human hands with enteric parasites in Indian Subcontinent

Figure 1 Identification of enteric parasites by polymerase chain reaction. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of DNA sequences from stool and handwash samples containing. A: Entamoeba histolytica; B: Giardia lamblia; C: Cryptosporidium sp. Lane M: 1 kb DNA (Invitrogen), Lane E: 128 bp PCR product; Lane E: 128 bp PCR product; Lane C: 1325 bp PCR product ova/(oo)cysts.

Figure 2 Identification of enteric parasites in hand wash. Hands of the individual human subject were washed with 100 mL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) with rubbing several times. Total hand wash in PBS was centrifuged to concentrate enteric parasitic ova/(oo)cysts as described in the “Materials and Methods”. Concentrated ova/(oo)cysts were studied by microscopic analysis and polymerase chain reaction (using genomic DNA). Presence of ova/(oo)cysts in hand wash samples from Kolkata, India (A) and Dhaka, Bangladesh (B) is shown in percentage.