MRSA found on 80 percent of dollar bills according to SPC study

A St. Petersburg College biological sciences professor and some of her students set out to discover how much, if any, “bad bacteria” is found on frequently handled fomites like paper money and credit cards. The preliminary findings from the study titled, “"Cash or Credit: Spreading the Wealth of Virulence Genes?", were released Monday. Shannon McQuaig, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Natural Sciences at St. Petersburg College spoke to the Infectious Disease Examiner Monday about the study and their preliminary findings. Dr. McQuaig and her students tested paper money and plastic currency for this “bad bacteria” using molecular techniques looking for various antibiotic resistance and virulence-associated...

Read more »