Profiles and seasonal distribution of airborne fungi in indoor and outdoor environments at a French hospital

Marc Sautour (1, 2) , Sixt Nathalie (2) , Frédéric Dalle (1, 2) , Coralie L'Ollivier (2, 3, 4) , Fourquenet Vitalie (2) , Céline Calinon (2) , Paul Kusum (2) , Valvin Stéphanie (2) , Maurel Alix (2) , Aho Serge (2) , Couillault Gérard (2) , Cachia Claire , Odile Vagner (2) , Bernadette Cuisenier (2) , Denis Caillot (2) , Alain Bonnin (1, 2)

1 LIMA - Laboratoire Interactions Muqueuses Agents Transmissibles
2 CHU Dijon
3 Mort cellulaire et cancer
4 Santé - STIC

A one-year prospective survey of fungal air contamination was conducted in outdoor air and inside two haematological units of a French hospital. Air was sampled with a portable Air System Impactor. During this period of survey, the mean viable fungal load was 122.1 cfu/m(3) in outdoor air samples, and 4.1 and 3.9 cfu/m(3) in samples from adult and pediatric haematology units, respectively. In outdoor samples, Cladosporium was the dominant genus (55%) while in the clinical units, Penicillium sp. (23 to 25%), Aspergillus sp. (15 to 23%) and Bjerkandera adusta (11 to 13%) were the most frequently recovered airborne fungi. The outdoor fungal load was far higher in autumn (168 cfu/m(3)), spring (110 cfu/m(3)) and summer (138 cfu/m(3)) than in winter (49 cfu/m(3)). In indoor air, fungal concentrations were significantly lower in winter (2.7 to 3.1 cfu/m(3)) than in summer (4.2 to 5.0 cfu/m(3)) in both haematology units. In the outdoor environment, Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp. were more abundant in winter while the levels of Cladosporium were lowest during this season. In the haematological units, the presence of Aspergillus sp. was stable during the year (close to 20%), Bjerkandera sp. was particularly abundant in winter (close to 30%); levels of Penicillium sp. were highest in autumn while levels of Cladosporium sp. were highest in spring and summer.

Mots clés: Airborne fungi Outdoor and indoor air Hospital Haematology units Seasonal variations Aspergillus

Domaines: Microbiologie et Parasitologie

Marc Sautour, Sixt Nathalie, Frédéric Dalle, Coralie L'Ollivier, Fourquenet Vitalie, et al.. Profiles and seasonal distribution of airborne fungi in indoor and outdoor environments at a French hospital. Science of the Total Environment, 2009, 12 (407), pp.3766-3771. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.02.024⟩. ⟨hal-00453097⟩