Assessment of Airborne Bacterial and Fungal Communities in Shahrekord Hospitals

Abstract

This paper presents information about airborne microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) in the indoor air of two hospitals (Kashani and Hajar) in the city of Shahrekord, Iran. The settle plate technique using open Petri dishes containing different culture media was employed to collect a sample and using Quick Take 30 Sample Pump three days per week for a period of 8 weeks. Standard microbiological methods were employed for the identification of bacterial and fungal isolates. The results showed that the concentration of bacteria in the study area ranged from 0 to 70 cfu/plate/h, while the concentration of fungi was 0 to 280 cfu/plate/h. Also, 12 bacterial and 3 fungal species were isolated and identified with varying frequencies of occurrence, including Staphylococcus spp., Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, Serratia Citrobacter, Proteus, and Klebsiella, while the fungal genera isolated included Yeast, Aspergillus flavus, and Penicillium. While the bacterial isolates Staphylococcus aureus (20.50%) and Pseudomonas (9.10%) were the most predominant airborne bacteria, yeast (22.70%) and Penicillium (20.50%) were the most frequently isolated fungal species. The population of microorganisms was the highest during the afternoon. The statistical analysis showed a significant difference between the microbial loads of the two hospitals at P < 0.05 . The generated data underline the usefulness of monitoring the air quality of the indoor hospital.

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“…Other pathogenic fungal taxa identified as core mycobiota in FC and FV samples were genera Pseudallescheria ( Luplertlop, 2018 ), Candida ( Turner and Butler, 2014 ), and Diutina ( Chen et al, 2021 ). The diversification of fungal in the HCW may be linked with mycological contamination in the air and on the surface, which has been frequently observed in hospital settings and might contribute to fungal infections ( Jackson and Chiller, 2018 ; Jalili et al, 2021 ). Our results contradicted the findings of Kollu et al (2022) and Wang et al (2020) , who reported that microwave radiation can effectively destroy fungi as demonstrated by microbial log reduction.…”

Microbial Indoor Air Quality and Associated Factors in Jimma Town Prison Administration, Southwestern Ethiopia

“…The floor space per inmate (m²/person) significantly affects the concentration of S. aureus negatively ( P = .032). This is due to the bacterial load being attributed to the number of occupants as a human is a reservoir of S. aureus 31 when they are released by different occasional activities like sneezing, coughing, and talking. 12 , 13 However, the number of occupants by itself cannot affect microbial load in the indoor environment.…”

Assessment of Indoor Air Quality of Four Primary Health Care Centers in Qatar

“…Numerous papers have been published about airborne microbes in hospital environments [ 2 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Studies on bacterial concentrations in the air show a considerable variation in abundance and species diversity between locations.…”

“…Studies on bacterial concentrations in the air show a considerable variation in abundance and species diversity between locations. Nevertheless, some species are commonly found in most sites, including Staphylococcus , Bacillus , and Micrococcus [ 9 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Airborne transmission is a known route for multiple highly threatening infectious microbes, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Mycobacterium tuberculosis , and multi-drug-resistant Acinetobacter spp., that have been isolated from health care facility environments [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”