Visiting Hours Impact on Indoor to Outdoor Ratio of Fungi Concentration at Golestan University Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran

Abstract

Prevalence of diseases originated from air pollution such as asthma and allergies, can be attributed to the bioaerosols. Bacteria and fungi are the main sources of hospital infections, which cause most of the diseases and mortality. The aim of this study was to determine the ratio of indoor to outdoor fungi concentration, the effect of population and people density on fungi concentration and the relationship between indoor and outdoor environment. In this study, three stations were used: outdoor of the hospital, general indoor and ICU wards of the Ahvaz hospital. These locations were chosen for sampling of the airborne fungi from October to December 2010. The samples were collected in 2 min, flow rate of 28.3 L/min using quick take (SKC Inc., PA, USA), based on the Andersen method.The three dominant culturable fungi genera in sampling stations were Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Cladosporium. The average of total culturable fungi concentration before visiting time was 365.8 CFU m -3 and increased to 578CFU m -3 after visiting time. The indoor to outdoor ratios (I/O) in ICU and internal for fungi before visit were 0.36 and 0.68, respectively. However, these ratios in ICU and internal station for fungi after visit were 0.78 and 0.99, respectively. Following the visit of the visitors, the concentration of fungi available indoor was conspicuously higher (even in the wards in which no visitors were allowed; e.g. ICU, etc). Hence the amount of indoor fungi was affected by the concentration of outdoor fungi and visitors crowd.

Occurrence and Frequency of Outdoor and Indoor Airborne Fungi of Suez General Hospital, Suez, Egypt

“…Several studies were conducted on the presence and diversity of fungi in outdoor and indoor air of hospitals in different countries of the world (Faure et al, 2002;Augustowska and Dutkiewicz, 2006;Sautour et al, 2009;Panagopoulou et al, 2002;Kuleta et al, 2009;Shams-Ghahfarokhi et al, 2014). In the present study, the fungal genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Cladosprium recorded the highest frequency among the total isolated fungi followed by Alternaria and Phoma that is consistent with other studies (Gorny and Dutkiewicz, 2002;Perdelli et al, 2006;Tormo-Molina et al, 2012;Goudarzi et al, 2017).…”

“…Monitoring of bioaerosols in hospitals can give information for epidemiological examination of nosocomial infectious diseases, control of airborne fungi and as a quality control indicator (Li and Hou 2003;Cent-eno and Machado, 2004;Fernstrom and Goldblatt, 2013). Several studies have been conducted on the fungal contamination in outdoor and indoor environ-ments of the hospitals because most outbreaks of nosocomial fungal diseases have been attributed to airborne fungi from sources outside of the hospital (Dacarro et al, 2003;Vonberg and Gastmeier, 2006;Goudarzi et al, 2017;Rostami et al, 2017).…”

Assessment of bioaerosols in tuberculosis high-risk areas of health care facilities in central Thailand

“…Because humans can generate approximately 3.7 × 10 7 bacterial genome copies/person/hour, bacterial levels in indoor air may be related to the activity and the density of the occupants, rather than the contamination from the indoor air [2,7]. A study of indoor fungi conducted in a university hospital in Iran showed that the indoor levels were affected by the concentration of outdoor fungi [22]. This suggests that the contributions to indoor airborne fungal concentrations are from conditions outdoors [2,21].…”

“…In emergency departments, the daily occupancy in each area and air change rates were positively associated (P < 0.01) with indoor airborne bacterial and fungal levels, and the daily number of coughs by TB patient(s) not wearing a protective mask in each area was positively correlated (P = 0.02) with indoor airborne bacterial levels. In a university hospital in Iran, the emergency department had the highest airborne levels of bacteria [22]. Similarly, the emergency departments of Portuguese hospitals [24] and a hospital in Thailand [5] had high airborne levels of both bacteria and fungi.…”

A comparative Study on Mycoflora of Different Care Units in Suez Canal University Hospital, Egypt

“…Studying the fungal flora in hospitals can provide full information about the epidemiology of nosocomial infectious diseases, and then controlling airborne fungi (Li & Hou, 2003;Centeno & Machado, 2004;Fernstrom & Goldblatt, 2013). Due to outbreaks of nosocomial fungal diseases, many studies have been developed in hospital environments on the fungal contamination (Dacarro et al, 2003;Vonberg & Gastmeier, 2006;Goudarzi et al, 2016;Rostami et al, 2017).…”