Distribution and Prevalence of Bacteria Found on the Door Handles of Olin Hall, Drake University

Abstract

Fomites are inanimate objects that serve in the spread of infectious disease. Our hypothesis was that door handles may aid in the spread of microbes between individuals and that they may be a reservoir of microbial contamination. In our experiments, we assessed the prevalence of specifically the Gram negative bacteria that were found on door handles of Olin Hall. It was hypothesized that during times where the building was near its peak usage, a larger percentage of the bacteria sampled from the door handles of Olin Hall would be Gram negative. The results showed that 20% of the total colonies were Gram negative bacteria. Our hypothesis was rejected, though further statistical analysis revealed an interesting observation and the data showed differences in prevalence of Gram negative bacteria found on individual doors.