Abstract
There has proven to be a very distinguishable impact of nosocomial infections within the healthcare system worldwide. Microbial pathogens in healthcare settings are transmitted through the air, surfaces as well as hand contact (because of the volume, mount of sick pts and the amount of immunocompromised). Environmental and hand hygiene interventions compliance have shown the most improvement in the eradication of these infections. The overuse of antimicrobial regimes to eradicate bacterial and fungal infections has only led to an increase in antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance. There has been a study on the evaluation of the microbial load in the Homoeopathy Healthcare Centre (HHC) dispensary at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) however no research has been done on what culturable bacteria and fungi can be found on the surfaces of the Homeopathy Healthcare Centre (HHC) dispensary at the University of Johannesburg.
The aim of this study was to identify and evaluate the types of culturable bacteria and fungi that are present on the Homeopathy Health Centre (HHC) dispensary surfaces at the University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein Campus to determine the microbial load and possible risks they may pose to students and patients.
Sampling was done by the researcher with the help of qualified laboratory technicians across the HHC dispensary using Copan SRK™ (Surface Rinse Kits) recommended for environmental surface sampling. Samples were taken from highly used surfaces including tabletops (n=3), cabinet doors (n=35), door handles (n=2), remedy stock bottles (n=10), bottle caps (n=10), plastic containers (14), shelves (n=18), access windows (n=1), and sinks (n=2). Sampling was done in the morning before normal hours of operation to ensure that students, interns, and clinicians are not aware of the study and thus change their normal hygiene habits. Samples were collected (n=96) from each surface according to the manufacturer’s instructions. All environmental sampling was done in two days. All the samples collected were then plated onto two pairs of the trypticase soy agar with polysorbate 80 and lecithin agar media plates and labelled as bacteria and fungi and incubated at 24–48 hours at 35°C (to culture bacteria) and for 2–7 days at 27–30°C (for fungi culture). Some of the bacterial (n=62) and fungal (n=8) isolates that represented what have been found in the samples based on growth patterns were sent to University of Johannesburg (UJ) Water and Health
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Research Centre WHRC) for Biomérieux vitek® 2 system for bacterial identification and Inqaba Biotech for internal transcribed spacer (ITS) for gene sequencing to identify the fungi organisms.
The results of this study demonstrated that there were indeed culturable fungi and bacteria on the surfaces of the Homoeopathy Healthcare Centre (HHC) dispensary. The pathogens found include, non-pathogenic gram-positive bacteria, pathogenic gram-negative bacteria, as well as non-infectious fungi. Bacterial growth resulted in A total of 75 plates (78.9%) from the bacterial plates (n=95) having grown bacterial colonies. A total of 57 plates (60%) from the fungal plates (n=95) had grown bacterial colonies. A total of 23 plates (24,2%) from the fungal plates (n=95) had grown fungal colonies. A total of 5 plates (5,3%) from the bacterial plates (n=95) had grown fungal colonies. The bacteria identified in this study included opportunistic bacteria such as Staphylococcus homoninis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcus luteus, Kocuria rosea, Bacillus cereus, Granulicatella elegens and Escherichia coli, as well as ubiquitous fungi such as Penicillium sp and Bipolaris austrostipae.
In conclusion, this study has highlighted that the Homoeopathy Healthcare Centre (HHC) dispensary’s highly used surfaces are infested with bacterial and fungal microbes. The implementation of environmental as well as hand hygiene protocols should be of paramount importance to assist in eliminating the acquiring and transmitting of infection by patients, students, and clinicians.