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Scientists called the most "dirty" currency
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
No one will be surprised that money notes can be carriers of pathogenic bacteria and pathogenic microorganisms. American scientists decided to conduct research and find out what exactly they can bear on their banknotes, and what currency is the most "dirty".
Scientists were not amazed when they learned that the most "dirty" currency is an Indian rupee. The audit showed that more than a quarter of the banknotes examined contain microorganisms, which are sources of a wide variety of diseases, from inflammation of the throat and pneumonia to tuberculosis. The most "infectious" were damaged or worn out banknotes - they directly infested various pathogenic bacteria.
"We were not surprised that the Indian rupee is the most" dirty "currency, and today travel agencies urge their customers to wash their hands after they pay rupees or hold them in their hands," says the author of the study, Professor Charles Prober.
The risk of the disease is really high: having the opportunity to penetrate into the body not only through the mucous membrane, but also through microcracks on the skin of the palms, bacteria will inevitably cause diseases in the inhabitants of developed countries that do not have immunity against them.
Indicators of the US currency were not much better. Microbiologists have found that dollars, long in circulation, contain many types of pathogenic bacteria. On banknotes, microorganisms that caused infections of the urinary tract and throat, meningitis and gastroenteritis were found. To contaminate, it is enough to eat a sandwich with unwashed hands that just held dollar bills. To all fault, according to Inpress.org.ua, the wide prevalence of the dollar. The banknotes are in use all over the world, and carry the infection from one part of the world to another.
"The risk of catching anything after contact with bills in patients and people weakened is much higher than that of healthy and strong," - warns the professor.
However, one should also beware of deliberately infecting banknotes. In America, cases of "bioterrorism" have already been recorded. For example, during a roadside check in Pennsylvania, a car was detained by order guards, transporting $ 250,000 in cash. When counting the notes, the guards of the order suddenly felt a strong malaise. One of the policemen was later hospitalized. Then it turned out that the banknotes were infected with staphylococcus.
The hryvnia, unfortunately, did not fall into the list of currencies examined by American specialists. However, domestic microbiologists with all certainty declare that we do not need to worry about the danger of our banknotes. Not being in exotic and distant countries, they tolerate only "local" microbes, to which Ukrainians already have immunity.
"It is no more dangerous to hold a hryvnia in your hands than to grab a handrail in a city transport." Just after any contact with banknotes, before you take food with your hands, you need to wash your hands with soap, which should become a habit, as well as washing hands after the street " , - Ukrainian doctors-infectionists note.
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