Quantification and analysis of airborne bacterial characteristics in a nursing care institution

Indoor air quality has become a critical issue because people spend most of their time in the indoor environment. The factors that influence indoor air quality are very important to environmental sanitation and air quality improvement. This study focuses on monitoring air quality, colony counts, and bacteria species of the indoor air of a nursing care institution. The regular colony counts in two different wards range from 55 to 600 cfu m(-3) Regression analysis results indicate that the bacterial colony counts have close correlation with relative humidity or carbon dioxide (CO2) but not with carbon monoxide (CO) or ozone (O3). Real-time PCR was used to quantify the bacterial pathogens of nosocomial infection, including Acinetobacter baumannii, Citrobacter freundii, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. The most abundant bacteria species in the air of the nursing care institution is E. coli.