Evaluation of Indoor Air Quality in Different Hospital Wards by Bioaerosol Sampling and Particle Counting in 2016

Abstract

Introduction Hundreds of millions of patients are affected by nosocomial infections worldwide each year, leading to significant mortality and financial losses for health systems. Maintenance of adequate indoor air quality Air (IAQ) at hospitals is critical to the prevention of these infections. Evaluation of IAQ can be performed by bioaerosol sampling and particle counting. The current study aimed to quantitative evaluation of bioaerosol concentration and particle counting in various wards rooms at a hospital in Qazvin province. Methods In This descriptive-analytic study, 7 wards’s air of the hospital were studied. Air samples were taken according to the NIOSH standard instructions and Anderson procedure at flow rate of 28.3 L/min per 10 minutes on TSA, and sabarose dextrose agar media. The samples were incubated then counted and determined in term of CFU/m3. The particulate matters were measured using China Way CW-HPC200(A). Results The lowest mean of fungal and total concentration was observed in pathology and laboratory and the highest concentration was detected in ICU and CCU ward. The mean of the PM2.5 and PM0.3 was 189 n/m3 and 100499 n/m3. Spearman test just showed significant correlation between the total microbial concentration and PM0.3 (P=0.003). Conclusion Our results showed that bioaerosol concentrations in hospitals were higher than outdoor, might be related to the presence of patients, their activity, unsuitable ventilation and disinfection. Therefore continuous monitoring, promotion of hygienic disinfection standards and ventilation systems are needed to improve the IAQ especially in the hospital wards.

Keywords

• Indoor Air Quality
• Bioaerosol
• Hospital
• Particulate Matter