Abstract

Our research was based in a medical centre’s Internal Medicine Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and Surgery Intensive Care Unit (SICU) located in central Taiwan. Three bioaerosol samplers were utilised (Anderson six-stage, AGI-30, and BioSampler) for sampling. Upon acquisition of samples, they were inoculated and cultured on BBL Trypticase Soy Agar (with 5% Sheep Blood) medium for growth. The bacterial colonies were later identified and analysed for antibiotic-resistant characteristics via BD Phoenix automated microbial identification and susceptibility test analyzer.

Research results have showed from the bioaerosol samples acquired within the MICU that bacteria and fungi below cut off size of 4.7 µm were primarily due to high possibility to enter human lung’s alveolar regions of the body, thereby causing opportunistic infections. In terms of bacterial strain identification, Gram-positive bacteria were mainly isolated with biosafety level of II. As for antibiotic-resistant bacteria analysis of MICU, strains were identified 63.5% that were resistant to National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) designated first (17 types) and second (18 types) line antibiotics. This phenomenon could very likely affect the medical staffs working within the hospital environment. As a result, recommendations for MICU ventilation designs should be carefully evaluated for the effectiveness of controlling nosocomial infections as well as proper implementation of personal protective equipment in order to reduce bioaerosol opportunistic infections and harmful exposure effects.