Abstract

VELEZ-PEREIRA, Andrés  and  CAMARGO CAICEDO, Yiniva. Air bacteria existing in the intensive care units of "Fernando Troconis" university hospital in Colombia. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.3, pp. 362-368. ISSN 0864-3466.

Introduction: nosocomial infections are considered to be significant health problems. The most frequent pathogenic agents responsible for this are Pseudomonas spp. and Staphylococcus spp which can be present in bioaerosols in hospitals. Objective: to assess the presence of airborne bacteria in intensive care unit of "Fernando Troconis" university hospital in Colombia. Methods: samples were collected in triplicate at the two monitoring stations located in each of the three intensive care units of the hospital (adult, pediatric and neonatal), using cascade impactor with selective agars: mannitol salt for Staphylococcus spp. and pseudomona agar for Pseudomonas spp. The collected samples were incubated at 37 °C for 48 hours. A hierarchical variance analysis was applied to determine the influence of factors such as gender, monitoring station and unit on the concentration of airborne bacteria concentration. Results: the highest concentration was 979.9 ± 31.3 CFU/m3 and the maximum average value was 277 ± 59.2 CFU/m3. Staphylococcus spp. concentration exceeded that of Pseudomonas spp. The intensive care unit with the highest concentration was the adult one, followed by the neonatal and the pediatric ones. Breathable aerosols accounted for 65 % compared with settleable aerosols, and higher concentration of breathable Staphylococcus spp. airborne bacteria (71.5 %) compared with Pseudomonas spp. (64.6 %). Conclusions: airborne bacteria concentration in the intensive care units was high, with significant percentage of breathable aerosols. All this increases the probabilities for the assisted patients to catch nosocomial infections caused by airborne bacteria.

Keywords : nosocomial infection; airborne bacteria; intensive care unit; Pseudomonas spp; Staphylococcus spp.

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