Monitoring the air fungal contamination load in two educational hospitals in Sanandaj, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

2 Environmental Health Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

4 Department of Occupational Health Engineering, Faculty of Health, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran

Abstract

Opportunistic fungal pathogens are known to increase infection in the health care workers and patients with immune deficiency. This study aimed to investigate the qualitative and quantitative airborne fungal contamination load in two Sanandaj hospitals. In this cross-sectional study, 112 biological samples from 15 different hospital wards were collected for 6 months by using the single-stage Anderson sampler in Sabouraud’s dextrose agar. Data were analyzed for the descriptive and analytical tests using IBMSPSS V.21 software and the air fungal contamination load (AFCL) was calculated (cfu/m3). The average hospital AFCL in Besat and Tovhid was 21.13 and 14.51 cfu/m3, respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed between AFCL and relative humidity (RH) in the two hospital samples (p = 0.495) according to independent t-test, whereas this difference in the average temperature in the hospital wards was significant (p < 0.001). Highest AFCL was observed in the surgical ward for females (AFCL = 35.34 cfu/m3) and the lowest was observed in the surgical and urology wards (AFCL = 2.2 cfu/m3) in the two hospitals. The frequency of Penicillium was the maximum with 77.6 and 65.25% in the Besat and Tovhid hospitals, respectively. In wards such as oncology, gynecological surgery, and operating room, further studies are needed to better control environmental conditions and fungal contamination. Thus, utilizing highly efficient air purification systems and regular monitoring of the biological risk for both patient and health care employees is recommended.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research
Volume 5, Issue 4
November 2017
Pages 233-240

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