Contamination of obsterics and gynecology hospital air by bacterial and fungal aerosols associated with nosocomial infections

Abstract

Bacterial and fungal bioaerosols are a global concern due to nosocomial infections, especially in developing countries. Our study aimed to detect fungal and bacterial bioaerosols in different wards of an obstetrics and gynecology hospital air samples. 240 bioaerosol samples were collected by performing impaction method from different wards of a hospital in the central part of Iran, during two seasons. Fungi genera and bacteria species are recognized by cultivation. Concentrations of bacteria and fungi were ranged from 44 to 75 CFU/m 3 and 8 to 22 CFU/m 3 , respectively. Labor Delivery and Recovery (LDR) and Emergency room had first and second most contaminated air among all the hospital wards. No significant difference between microbial load of wards which used natural ventilation and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system was observed. The microbial load was not affected significantly by temperature, working shift, and Inpatient Bed Occupancy Rate (IBOR). Fungal load related significantly with relative humidity. Staphylococcus aureus (detected in 48.3% of samples) and Penicillium (27%) were the most predominant isolated bacteria and fungi, respectively. The results revealed that the level of bacteria and fungi responsible for nosocomial infections in the air of this hospital is very low. Although levels of microbial contamination are relatively low, it is important to investigate the effect of bioaerosols on nosocomial infections, especially in neonates.

Airborne Fungi in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Operating Theater in a University Hospital

“…Comparing these findings with other studies, we found significant differences in fungal concentrations reported in critical hospital environments. Nasiri et al (2021) investigated the microbiological air quality in different hospital wards (NICU and Surgical center) and found that the mean concentrations obtained for each environment were much lower than those found by us. Likewise, Mirhoseini et al (2020) and Montazeri et al (2020) reported fungal concentrations in critical hospital areas that ranged from 0 to 63 CFU/m³ and 7 to 92 CFU/m³ respectively, and mean concentrations that were also below that found in this study.…”

Long-term effectiveness of commonly used hospital disinfectants against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus

“…Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License that the occurrence of HAI is more than two folds higher in the developing world (Nasiri et al, 2021;Nejad et al, 2011). The hospital environment serves as an essential reservoir for various infectious microorganisms.…”

Effect of environmental factors on the concentration distribution of bioaerosols with different particle sizes in an enclosed space

“…In this study, bacterial concentrations in hospital environments were not significantly related to relative humidity, but fungal concentration was correlated to relative humidity. 25 All the aforementioned studies have highlighted the influence of environmental factors on bioaerosol concentration. However, these studies do not focus on the dispersion of bioaerosol under different environmental factors.…”