Simultaneous monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial profiles from the air of hospital environments with COVID-19-affected patients

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 presence and the bacterial community profile in air samples collected at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Operational Unit of Infectious Diseases of Santa Caterina Novella Hospital in Galatina (Lecce, Italy) have been evaluated in this study. Air samplings were performed in different rooms of the ICU ward with and without COVID-19 patients. No sample was found positive to SARS-CoV-2, according to Allplex 2019-nCoV Assay. The airborne bacterial community profiles determined by the 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding approach up to the species level were characterized by richness and biodiversity indices, Spearman correlation coefficients, and Principal Coordinate Analysis. Pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacterial species, also detected in outdoor air samples, were found in all collected indoor samples. Staphylococcus pettenkoferi, Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum, and others coagulase-negative staphylococci, detected at high relative abundances in all the patients’ rooms, were the most abundant pathogenic species. The highest mean relative abundance of S. pettenkoferi and C. tuberculostearicum suggested that they were likely the main pathogens of COVID-19 patients at the ICU ward of this study. The identification of nosocomial pathogens representing potential patients’ risks in ICU COVID-19 rooms and the still controversial airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 are the main contributions of this study.

Characterization of the Airborne Microbiome in Different Indoor and Outdoor Locations of a University Building Using an Innovative Compositional Data Analysis Approach

“…More details on the main characteristics of the ACD-200 Bobcat device were provided by Bøifot et al [23], while more details on the sampling methodologies applied in this work can be found in Perrone et al [24]. Note that several recent studies presented some results obtained from aerosol samples collected by the ACD-200 Bobcat both in outdoor [25][26][27] and in indoor environments [28][29][30][31][32].…”