Objectives: Assessment of the incidence of fungal pathogens in air of the operating rooms from one of the hospitals in Białystok.
Material and methods: Investigations were conducted in selected rooms of obstetrics department. Material for mycological studies was air sampled at the entrance of hospital building, the entrance to operating room, hall and selected rooms of the department. Fungi were identified using the standard microbial procedures: The monitoring of airborne fungi pollution was done using SAS SUPER 100 (pbi international). Classification of the isolated fungi was done with an accordance to the current procedures.
Results: In the air of 16 rooms of obstetrics department different numbers of fungal colonies from 0 to 560 CFU/1000L of air were isolated. Fungi were not isolated from the air samples of preparing, septic, operating and family deliveries rooms. The highest number of fungi colonies were isolated at the entrance the hospital. The following fungal pathogens isolated from the air were: Candida albicans. non-Candida albicans, Penicillium species, Cladosporium species and Aspergillus species.
Conclusions: 1. The different number of fungal colonies was found depending on type of the hospital room. 2. The highest number of fungal colonies was isolated from the air samples of patients rooms 3. No fungal colonies were isolated from the septic, operating and family deliveries rooms 4. The main fungal pathogen isolated from the air samples was Candida albicans.