RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the quality of indoor air of different wards and units of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, to ascertain their contribution to infection rate in the hospital. METHODS: The microbial quality of indoor air of nine wards/units of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria was conducted. Sedimentation technique using open Petri-dishes containing different culture media was employed and samplings were done twice daily, one in the morning shortly after cleaning and before influx of people/patients into the wards/units and the other in the evening when a lot of activities would have taken place in these wards. Isolates were identified according to standard methods. RESULTS: Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference (χ(2) = 6.016â 7) in the bacteria population of the different sampling time whereas it was not so for fungi population (χ(2) = 0.285â 7). Male medical ward (MMW) and male surgical general (MSG) recorded the highest bacterial and fungal growth while the operating theatre (OT) was almost free of microbial burden. The bacteria isolates were Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp., Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marscences while the fungi isolates included Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium sp., Fusarium sp., Candida albicans and Alternaria sp. Staphylococcus aureus was the predominantly isolated bacterium while Penicillium sp. was the most isolated fungus. CONCLUSIONS: Though most of the microbial isolates were potential and or opportunistic pathogens, there was no correlation between the isolates in this study and the surveillance report of nosocomial infection during the period of study, hence the contribution of the indoor air cannot be established. From the reduction noticed in the morning samples, stringent measures such as proper disinfection and regular cleaning, restriction of patient relatives' movement in and out of the wards/units need to be enforced so as to improve the quality of indoor air of our hospital wards/units.
