Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Bio-Aerosols in Surgery Rooms and Emergency Department of an Educational Hospital

Abstract

Background:Bio-aerosols are a potential hazard in hospitals and are mostly produced by hospital staff, patients and visitors. Bio-aerosols are solid or liquid particles pending in the air and they consist of aerosols accompanying micro-organisms or organic compounds of micro-organisms such as endotoxin, metabolite, toxin and other parts of organism. Those are a potential hazard in hospitals and are mostly produced by hospital staff, patients and visitors.Objectives:This study aimed to determine the types and amount of bacterial contamination in operating rooms and emergency department of an educational hospital in Zahedan, South-East of Iran.Materials and Methods:In this study, 72 samples were collected from three operating rooms and three rooms in the emergency department of an educational hospital during 2012. On the first day of every month, a sample was taken from each room during the morning shift; active sampling was done on plates consisting of blood agar and brain-heart infusion agar (BHI) for 10 minutes in the axis of a one-story Anderson impactor (flow rate 28.1 litter per minutes) and SIBATA air pump SIP 32-L and samples were then placed in a 35°C Incubator. Bacterial colonies were counted; warm coloring and differential tests were done and the data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests.Results:Seventeen types of bacteria were detected including Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, Viridians, Pneumococcus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus, Bacillus cereus, B. subtilis, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Diphtheroid, Citrobacter and Enterobacter. Quantitative bacterial results showed that the number of observed bacteria in the emergency department with an average of 103.88 ± 33.84 cfu/m³ was more than that of the surgery rooms with an average of 63.32 ± 32.94 cfu/m³. Furthermore, the highest average number of all counted colonies (106 ± 28.45 cfu/m³) was determined in autumn. In all samples, S. aureus and Micrococcus were the most detected bacteria.Conclusions:The World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested relatively relaxed limits of 100 cfu/m3 for bacteria and 50 cfu/m3 for fungi in the hospital air. Therefore, quantitative and qualitative outcomes of this study demonstrate that contamination level and bacterial variety in surgery rooms and emergency departments is high and effective measures must be taken to control the possible health risks.

Microbiological analysis of bioaerosols collected from Hospital Emergency Departments and ambulances

“…The results of testing were found to be within the range of concentrations presented by other authors for similar hospital locations [6,16,17]. The authors obtained the results for bioaerosols in different hospital rooms using the impact methods; for example, Mirzaei et al studied HEDs spaces using an Andersen sampler and reported the bacterial bioaerosol pollution at the level of 1.03 × 10 2 CFU/m 3 (±33.84), while in surgery rooms the level was 6.33 × 10 1 CFU/m 3 (±32,94) [6].…”

“…The proportion of particular groups of bacterial and fungal bioaerosols in relation to the total microbiota isolated from samples did not differ from common trends [5,6,8,16,18,19,20,21].…”

“…The authors obtained the results for bioaerosols in different hospital rooms using the impact methods; for example, Mirzaei et al studied HEDs spaces using an Andersen sampler and reported the bacterial bioaerosol pollution at the level of 1.03 × 10 2 CFU/m 3 (±33.84), while in surgery rooms the level was 6.33 × 10 1 CFU/m 3 (±32,94) [6]. Hoseinzadeh et al, in their research in hospital wards, showed average levels of bioaerosol concentrations of 1.6 × 10 2 CFU/m 3 (bacteria) and 1.25 × 10 1 CFU/m 3 (fungi).…”

“…There exists, however, a potential threat posed by harmful biological agents dispersed by the air. Therefore analysis of bacterial and fungal bioaerosols is a significant element of ensuring appropriate health and safety conditions for both medical personnel and patients [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The analysis of an individual exposure of HEDs staff should be based on a personal sampling device in order to achieve a high degree of accuracy in the assessment of threat level.…”

Identificação de Staphylococcus epidermidis em formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) coletadas em uma área de alimentação no município de Guarulhos, São Paulo

“…constituem-se como o principal micro-organismo causador de infecção de feridas cirúrgicas e o mais comum agente de infecção hospitalar. Pelo fato de muitas cepas serem resistentes à maioria dos antibióticos disponíveis, sua ocorrência é de preocupação mundial (FONTANA et al, 2010;MIRZAEI et al, 2014). Staphylococcus epidermidis também é causadora de infecções crônicas em ambiente hospitalar associadas às formigas.…”