ArticleOman medical journal2015
Microbial air quality and bacterial surface contamination in ambulances during patient services.
Article in Oman medical journal, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Efficacy of ambulance air purifiers with different photocatalytic oxidation components in the removal of Bacillus subtilis spores.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Bacterial Contaminants in Ambulances from a Tertiary Care Hospital as Potential Threats to Patients and Medical Staff in Al-Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia-Effect of Decontamination.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Preliminary investigation of bacterial surface contamination in emergency ambulances in South Korea.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Hospital-borne hazardous air pollutants and air cleaning strategies amid the surge of SARS-CoV-2 new variants.Heliyon · 2024Review
- Airborne transmission of biological agents within the indoor built environment: a multidisciplinary review.Air quality, atmosphere, & health · 2023Review
- Indoor bacterial and fungal aerosols as predictors of lower respiratory tract infections among under-five children in Ibadan, Nigeria.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2022Article
- Positive and Negative Ions Potently Inhibit the Viability of Airborne Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria.Microbiology spectrum · 2021Article
- Current Applications of Absolute Bacterial Quantification in Microbiome Studies and Decision-Making Regarding Different Biological Questions.Microorganisms · 2021Review
- Mixed Matrix Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)-Copper Nanofibrous Anti-Microbial Air-Microfilters.Membranes · 2019Article
- Air Quality and Employee Hygiene-related Behavior in a Post Anesthesia Care Unit in Thailand.Asian/Pacific Island nursing journal · 2019Article
- Rapid metagenomics analysis of EMS vehicles for monitoring pathogen load using nanopore DNA sequencing.PloS one · 2019Article
- Prehospital infection control and prevention in Denmark: a cross-sectional study on guideline adherence and microbial contamination of surfaces.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2018Article
- The Emergency Medical Service Microbiome.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe sought to assess microbial air quality and bacterial surface contamination on medical instruments and the surrounding areas among 30 ambulance runs during service.
methodsWe performed a cross-sectional study of 106 air samples collected from 30 ambulances before patient services and 212 air samples collected during patient services to assess the bacterial and fungal counts at the two time points. Additionally, 226 surface swab samples were collected from medical instrument surfaces and the surrounding areas before and after ambulance runs. Groups or genus of isolated bacteria and fungi were preliminarily identified by Gram's stain and lactophenol cotton blue. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient with a p-value of less than 0.050 considered significant.
resultsThe mean and standard deviation of bacterial and fungal counts at the start of ambulance runs were 318±485cfu/m(3) and 522±581cfu/m(3), respectively. Bacterial counts during patient services were 468±607cfu/m(3) and fungal counts were 656±612cfu/m(3). Mean bacterial and fungal counts during patient services were significantly higher than those at the start of ambulance runs, p=0.005 and p=0.030, respectively. For surface contamination, the overall bacterial counts before and after patient services were 0.8±0.7cfu/cm(2) and 1.3±1.1cfu/cm(2), respectively (p<0.001). The predominant isolated bacteria and fungi were Staphylococcus spp. and Aspergillus spp., respectively. Additionally, there was a significantly positive correlation between bacterial (r=0.3, p<0.010) and fungal counts (r=0.2, p=0.020) in air samples and bacterial counts on medical instruments and allocated areas.
conclusionsThis study revealed high microbial contamination (bacterial and fungal) in ambulance air during services and higher bacterial contamination on medical instrument surfaces and allocated areas after ambulance services compared to the start of ambulance runs. Additionally, bacterial and fungal counts in ambulance air showed a significantly positive correlation with the bacterial surface contamination on medical instruments and allocated areas. Further studies should be conducted to determine the optimal intervention to reduce microbial contamination in the ambulance environment.
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