Isolation and Identification of Airborne Pathogenic Fungi from the Hospitals at Dhamar Governorate, Yemen

Abstract

The air in many indoor environments also contains spores; however, the hospital indoors environments may lead to spread the pathogenic fungi spores among hospitalized patients. The aim of this study was to isolate and identify the airborne pathogenic fungi from the Hospitals environment at Dhamar governorate, Yemen. The study was conducted in four hospitals of government, which was included; Hospital A, Hospital B, Hospital C and Hospital D. A total of 48 air samples was collected from different departments of these Hospitals. By using sterile petri dishes contains sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) media with 50µg/L of Cychlohexamide as anti- microbial, to prevent growth of saprophytic fungi and some bacteria. These petri dishes were left open for 6 hours. All samples labeled properly and brought to a laboratory for examination and processing according to standard microbiological techniques. The results had revealed that, 34 pathogenic and opportunistic fungi were isolated from Four Hospitals at Dhamar governorate. These isolates were distributed in Hospital A 35% (12/34), Hospital 21% (7/34) B, Hospital 18% (6/34) C and Hospital D 26% (9/34). These airborne pathogenic fungi included 8 fungal genera: Trichophyton, Cladosporium, Chryosporium, Mortierella, Paecilomyces, Aspergillus Rhizopus and Penicillinum spp.. Overall the result, only 6 (18%) isolates were identified as pathogenic fungi at all Dhamar Hospital while the rest 28 isolates were identified as opportunistic fungi at all Dhamar governorates hospitals. In conclusion, more hygienic practices and continuous checking of nosocomial pathogen should be taken under consideration.