Qualitative assessment of bacteria and fungi in the indoor environment of hospitals of Islamabad, Pakistan

This study was conducted to determine the health risks in the indoor air of the four government. hospitals of the Islamabad city, Pakistan. Four different main wards, i.e., general male/female surgical wards, children's ward and microbiology laboratory were included. The sampling was done in the summer season due to the possibility of maximum recovery of microorganisms. Results showed presence of bacterial and fungal pathogens in the air of hospitals especially in surgical wards of all hospitals. Lowest bacterial counts were recorded in microbiology laboratory. Among bacterial isolates Micrococcus and Staphylococcus auleus were abundantly found in all hospitals as 22.09 % and 21.2 %, respectively followed by gram negative group of bacteria i.e, Enterobacteriaceae spp. (Escherichia coil), Pseudomonas spp. were found to be lowest as 6.5 % of the total bacterial load in all hospitals. Among the fungi Aspergillus (fumigatus.niger; flavus) recovery was the most in the environment of all hospitals with the value of 27.7 % and Tricosporon was observed lowest with the value of 1.15 %. p- value for total microbial load among the hospitals sampled was not significant. (author)