RESUMO
Bacteriological quality of some pharmaceutical products purchased from open markets; buses and drug stores in Uyo metropolis was studied in order to determine the level of contamination of the drugs. The drug samples examined were Tetracycline capsules; Paracetamol tablets; Ampicillin capsules; Chloroquine tablets; Chloroquine syrup; Chloroquine injections; Flagyl tablets and Chloramphenicol tablets. The bacterial count ranged from 2.3x104 cfu/g to 4.4x104 cfu/g for the 16 samples of Ampicillin; 1.2x105 cfu/g to 1.8x104 cfu/g for the 7 samples of unsealed capsules of tetratcycline; 2.9x104 cfu/g to 3.8 x104 cfu/g for the 15 samples of paracetamol; 3.8 x104 cfu/ml to 2.0 x108 cfu/ml for the 23 samples of Chloroquine injection; tablets and syrup 1.0 x104 cfu/g to 4.8 x104 cfu/g for 15 samples of Flagyl. The organisms isolated were Bacillus subtilis (19.0); Staphylococcus aureus (25.0); Aerobacter aerogenes (7.0) and Proteus mirabilis (8.0). Although the counts obtained from this work were of low levels; the presence of known pathogenic microorganisms such as Staphylococcus aureus and Proteus mirabilis in some drugs constitute a health hazard to the public