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Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species

Indoor microbial exposure may cause negative health effects. Only little is known about the occupational microbial exposure in nursing homes and the factors that influence the exposure. The exposure in nursing homes may be increased due to close contact with elderly persons who may carry infectious...

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Autores principales: Rasmussen, Pil Uthaug, Uhrbrand, Katrine, Frederiksen, Margit W, Madsen, Anne Mette
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37300561
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxad032
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author Rasmussen, Pil Uthaug
Uhrbrand, Katrine
Frederiksen, Margit W
Madsen, Anne Mette
author_facet Rasmussen, Pil Uthaug
Uhrbrand, Katrine
Frederiksen, Margit W
Madsen, Anne Mette
author_sort Rasmussen, Pil Uthaug
collection PubMed
description Indoor microbial exposure may cause negative health effects. Only little is known about the occupational microbial exposure in nursing homes and the factors that influence the exposure. The exposure in nursing homes may be increased due to close contact with elderly persons who may carry infectious or antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms and due to handling of laundry, such as used clothing and bed linen. We investigated the microbial exposure in 5 nursing homes in Denmark, by use of personal bioaerosol samples from different groups of staff members taken during a typical working day, stationary bioaerosol measurements taken during various work tasks, sedimented dust samples, environmental surface swabs, and swabs from staff members’ hands. From the samples, we explored bacterial and fungal concentrations and species composition, endotoxin levels, and antimicrobial resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus isolates. Microbial concentrations from personal exposure samples differed among professions, and geometric means (GM) were 2,159 cfu/m(3) (84 to 1.5 × 10(5)) for bacteria incubated on nutrient agar, 1,745 cfu/m(3) (82 to 2.0 × 10(4)) for bacteria cultivated on a Staphylococcus selective agar, and 16 cfu/m(3) air for potential pathogenic fungi incubated at 37 °C (below detection limit to 257). Bacterial exposures were elevated during bed making. On surfaces, the highest bacterial concentrations were found on bed railings. The majority of bacterial species found were related to the human skin microflora, such as different Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium species. Endotoxin levels ranged from 0.02 to 59.0 EU/m(3), with a GM of 1.5 EU/m(3). Of 40 tested A. fumigatus isolates, we found one multiresistant isolate, which was resistant towards both itraconazole and voriconazole, and one isolate resistant towards amphotericin B. In conclusion, we give an overview of the general microbial exposure in nursing homes and show that microbial exposures are higher for staff with more care and nursing tasks compared with administrative staff.
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spelling pubmed-104104942023-08-10 Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species Rasmussen, Pil Uthaug Uhrbrand, Katrine Frederiksen, Margit W Madsen, Anne Mette Ann Work Expo Health Original Articles Indoor microbial exposure may cause negative health effects. Only little is known about the occupational microbial exposure in nursing homes and the factors that influence the exposure. The exposure in nursing homes may be increased due to close contact with elderly persons who may carry infectious or antimicrobial-resistant microorganisms and due to handling of laundry, such as used clothing and bed linen. We investigated the microbial exposure in 5 nursing homes in Denmark, by use of personal bioaerosol samples from different groups of staff members taken during a typical working day, stationary bioaerosol measurements taken during various work tasks, sedimented dust samples, environmental surface swabs, and swabs from staff members’ hands. From the samples, we explored bacterial and fungal concentrations and species composition, endotoxin levels, and antimicrobial resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus isolates. Microbial concentrations from personal exposure samples differed among professions, and geometric means (GM) were 2,159 cfu/m(3) (84 to 1.5 × 10(5)) for bacteria incubated on nutrient agar, 1,745 cfu/m(3) (82 to 2.0 × 10(4)) for bacteria cultivated on a Staphylococcus selective agar, and 16 cfu/m(3) air for potential pathogenic fungi incubated at 37 °C (below detection limit to 257). Bacterial exposures were elevated during bed making. On surfaces, the highest bacterial concentrations were found on bed railings. The majority of bacterial species found were related to the human skin microflora, such as different Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium species. Endotoxin levels ranged from 0.02 to 59.0 EU/m(3), with a GM of 1.5 EU/m(3). Of 40 tested A. fumigatus isolates, we found one multiresistant isolate, which was resistant towards both itraconazole and voriconazole, and one isolate resistant towards amphotericin B. In conclusion, we give an overview of the general microbial exposure in nursing homes and show that microbial exposures are higher for staff with more care and nursing tasks compared with administrative staff. Oxford University Press 2023-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10410494/ /pubmed/37300561 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxad032 Text en © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Rasmussen, Pil Uthaug
Uhrbrand, Katrine
Frederiksen, Margit W
Madsen, Anne Mette
Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
title Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
title_full Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
title_fullStr Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
title_full_unstemmed Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
title_short Work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
title_sort work in nursing homes and occupational exposure to endotoxin and bacterial and fungal species
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10410494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37300561
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxad032
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