In order to elucidate a possible role of the central air-conditioning system in
hospital-acquired infections, the dusts and air were sampled from air-conditioning
systems in general ward, corridor, medical ICU, hemodialysis room and laminar flow
room, and cultured in blood agar and Sabouraud dextrose agar media.
On fungal cultures of dust from all sites except the laminar flow room, Penicillium
spp., Phialophora spp., Rhizopus spp., Cladosporium spp., Candida spp., Aspergillus spp.
were isolated and on bacterial cultures, Bacillus subtilis, micrococci, coagulase negative
staphylococci were isolated. On bacterial cultures of air from same sites, micrococci,
coagulase negative staphylococci, Bacillus subtilis were isolated and no organism was
isolated from bacterial and fungal cultures.
This results suggest that the laminar flow room is necessary for the
immunosuppressed patients, and in the central air-conditioning rooms, the
hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by fungal agents and the opportunistic infections
should be considered.
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