EVALUATION OF AIRBORNE BACTERIA IN THE IN-PATIENT SECTIONS OF SELECTED PRIMARY HEALTH CARE CENTRES IN OGUN STATE

Abstract

Healthcare facilities is said to contain different types of microorganisms. However, poor indoor quality in these facilities may result in nosocomial infections caused by microbes. Among these microorganisms, airborne bacteria aremajor source of contaminationsespecially in the in-patient sections which are responsible for airborne bacterial diseases. In this study, the diversity of the airborne bacteria was investigated in the in-patient sections of five selected primary health centers in Ogun State. These included three government owned (Wawa Primary Health Center, Ibafo Primary Health Center, Ofada Primary Health Center) and two private owned (Mountain Top University Clinic and MFM, Prayer City Clinic). The room temperature of the wards and the number of in-patients in each health centers were observed. Sterile Nutrient agar plates were exposed at 100 cm height to indoor air in the general wards of the health care centres for 10-30 minutes at the operated room temperature. The isolates were however identified using morphological and biochemical procedures for bacteriological identifications. Six bacteria genera were isolated, these included Staphylococcus sp, Pseudomonas sp, Bacillus sp, Micrococcus sp, Arthrobacter sp and Klebsiella sp. These results revealed the need to carry out microbiological hospital surveillance in order to minimize the occurrence of nosocomial infections, and to also educate the health care staffs on the significance of controlling infections