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Bacterial Bioburden in Hospital Environment

  • Ana MonteiroEmail author
  • Sandra Cabo Verde
Chapter
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Abstract

Hospital buildings may be regarded as dynamic environments affected by season, weather conditions, indoor ventilation system design and operation, intrusion of moisture, outdoor microbial load and the number of occupants, visitors and human activities. Airborne microorganisms, such as bacteria, can originate not only from humans (including patients), but can also be spawned by various indoor hospital characteristics and outdoor environmental sources. These factors may be associated with conditions for microbial growth, leading to bacterial air pollution. Poor hospital indoor air quality may cause hospital-acquired infections, sick hospital syndrome and various occupational hazards. Therefore, ensuring effective disinfection procedures and regular monitoring measures of hospital environment is essential for microbial control by detecting the irregular introduction of airborne particles via clothing of visitors and medical staff or carriage by personal and medical materials. Achieving a satisfactory microbial control in hospitals environment is thus a multidisciplinary challenge for health care professionals, hospital managers and occupational health.

Keywords

Bacterial bioburden hospital environment indoor air occupational health 
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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Research Group Environment & Health, Lisbon School of Health Technology/Polytechnic Institute of LisbonLisbonPortugal
  2. 2.Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares - C2TN, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Estrada NacionalBobadela LRSPortugal

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