Ocorrência de fungos em paredes de alvenaria no ambiente hospitalar: estudo de caso

Abstract

The hospital is a place that requires special care. In terms of reforms and even buildings, this site requires even greater care since, demolition, sanding and other types of interventions can generate aerosols. In aerosols, commonly called dust, fungi are present is high the probability of the fungi be aspirated by immunocompromised patients in a hospital. This microorganisms can germinate and cause severe infections and lethal in many cases. The present work has as its object to identify and characterize the occurrence of fungi in mortar coating in the hospital environment. The survey was conducted in masonry walls of the Clinics Hospital, Federal University of Paraná, in which were extracted samples of the surface, of the mortar and of the ceramic block. Samples were plated on Petri plates containing Sabouraud Dextrose Agar, incubated at 25 ° C for seven days, and after this period was analyzed fungal growth. The environments had their temperature and humidity monitored by a remote and manual system during one year. The mortar coating these environments was also investigated with respect to tensile strength and moisture content. Of the samples collected 39% showed growth of colonies with the following distribution of microorganisms: Aspergillus (28% of the samples), Absidia (21%), Cladosporium (18%), Rhizopus (10%), Rhodotorulla (8%), Fusarium (6%), Penicillium (2%), A. flavus, other genera and other filamentous fungi (2%). Within the substrate researched were identified three different species of Aspergillus: A. A.flavus, A.fumigatus and A.niger. All species of Aspergillus found cause invasive aspergillosis and therefore offer a serious risk to immunocompromised patients. In one of the walls evaluated the moisture content was equal 12% and the tensile strength was zero. The study revealed the presence of opportunistic fungi such as Aspergillus, Fusarium, among others, in the mortar and in the ceramic block inside the wall of the environments studied.