Assessment of Microbial Contamination in Indoor Air of Private Maternity Homes in Moga, Punjab

Abstract

Introduction: Assessment of indoor air quality has become important as the bacteria and fungi are omnipresent. Human diseases caused by microorganisms can be classified as bacterial, fungal and viral infection and infection type is determined by the source of infection which can be air, food, water and soil via which the infection transmits in immunesuppressed patient leading to the pathogenic diseases in the hospital wards. Aim: To assess the microbial contamination in the air of general and private ward of the private maternity homes in the province of Moga region, Punjab, India. Materials and Methods: The microbial contamination of indoor air of five different maternity homes in Moga district of Punjab, India was studied. The sampling of air (duplicates) was done by employing the passive air sampling procedure (exposed-plate technique) for a one-month period. Different culture media was used for the analysis. Spearman's rank correlation was used to find the regression coefficient among bacteria and fungi load in wards. Results: The number of viable bacteria and fungi were ranging between 259-2665 CFU/m3 for bacteria and 79-826 CFU/m3 for fungi. A total of eight bacterial and six fungi were identified up to genus level. The correlation between bacteria vs. fungi was plotted using Spearman's correlation which shows the positive linear association (p<0.001) with regression coefficient. Conclusion: The current study enlightens us about the presence of the microbes in air in the maternity homes that can be potent to induce nosocomial infection. The high concentration of bacteria and fungi indicates that there is a need for the intrusion to regulate the growth and development of microbes in the hospitals and maternity homes.

Keywords

• bacteria
• fungi
• maternity wards
• microbiological quality
• passive air-sampling