Air-borne microfungus flora determined in the different units of the Department of Internal Diseases, Ege University Hospital

In the Medical Faculty of Ege University, indoor airborne fungal concentrations and the types of fungi have been determined in the two parts and the intensive care unit where patients who are admitted to the Department of Internal diseases, Department of Endocrinology, Department of Hematology, Department of Immunology, Department of Nephrology, Department of Rheumatology, Department of Oncology, Department of Gastroenterology and Department of Geriatrics, are treated. For this purpose, air samples were collected in 19 different locations, each month for 6 months, with the Merck MAS 100. Upon the identification of isolates obtained from 3,167 microfungus colonies counted, 43 different species belonging to 13 genera were determined. Of them, the most frequent genera were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium and Alternaria. Concentrations of air-borne fungi in several wards of the intensive care unit ranged between 120 and 2,100 cfu/m3. In another part of wards, fungal load was found to be between 20 and 2,280 cfu/m3. When the fungal loads in the intensive care unit and in the other units were compared, no significant difference was found (P = 0.266> 0.05). According to the descriptive statistics kept in April, May and June, there was a large increase in maximum values compared to the other months