Select Page

Re: Air sampling – Reading the results

#71408 Quote
Fiona de Sousa
Participant

Author:
Fiona de Sousa

Email:
Fiona.DeSousa@SAH.ORG.AU

Organisation:

State:

Thank you to everyone who sent me information on and off list.

The controversy continues – I can tell you that there is certainly no consensus in what people are using for limits to their testing or even if we should be testing with air sampling in the first place.

The range of acceptable fungal CFU / cubic metre ranged from 0 to 35, with one document suggesting <500 and the bacterial count was between 0 – 500 as well.
The most common recommendations were 0cfu/m3 for fungi and 35 cfu/m3 for bacteria.

John – I agree a national standard would be excellent not only for the limits but more importantly should we do this testing in the first place?

Kind regards,

Fiona De Sousa
Infection Prevention & Control Coordinator
Sydney Adventist Hospital
Fiona.Desousa@sah.org.au
185 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga, NSW, 2076

Dear Fiona

We also base our approach on Dharan

I did put together an approach on the WIKI – see http://hicsigwiki.asid.net.au/index.php?titleOperating_theatre_commissioning_-_Microbiological

It would be useful to agree a national standard for this!

Kind regards
John

Dr John Ferguson
Director, Infection Prevention & Control, Hunter New England Health

[http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/images/communications/e-signatures/images/NSW-Health-Hunter-New-England-LHD.jpg]

Dear Fiona,

Here at our institution, we are currently using this reference:

Dharan S, Pittet D. Environmental controls in operating theatres. J Hosp Infect. 2002 Jun;51(2):79-84.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12090793

Realising that it is very difficult to set and apply acceptable CFU limits, and there always will be an arbitrary component to this.

Best regards, Matthias.


Matthias Maiwald, MD, FRCPA
Consultant in Microbiology
Adj. Assoc. Prof., Natl. Univ. Singapore
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
100 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 229899
Tel. +65 6394 8725 (Office)
Tel. +65 6394 1389 (Laboratory)
Fax +65 6394 1387

Dear members,

I know that air sampling in a new building is a contentious issue but we are currently undergoing it as part of the commissioning process for new operating theatres and one of the difficulties I face is people asking for the acceptable limit of certain organisms. Aside from fungal organisms I have been unable to find any references to guide me on specific organisms counts.

I would like to hear people’s views on the isolation of skin or environmental flora when doing this sampling – how many CFU would be acceptable per air sample ?

Fiona De Sousa
Infection Prevention & Control Coordinator
Sydney Adventist Hospital
Fiona.Desousa@sah.org.au
185 Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga, NSW, 2076

If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message
is prohibited. If you have received this message in error please notify the sender immediately, then destroy the original message.
Any views expressed in this message are solely those of the individual sender, except where the sender is specifically authorised
by Adventist HealthCare Limited to state that they are the views of Adventist HealthCare Limited.
_____________________________________________________________________
This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by Symantec Hosted Services
Scanning Services – powered by MessageLabs. For further information
visit http://www.messagelabs.com
MESSAGES POSTED TO THIS LIST ARE SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF ACIPC.

The use of trade/product/commercial brand names through the list is discouraged by ACIPC. If you wish to discuss specific reference to products or services by brand or commercial names, please do this outside the list.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives – registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new message send an email to aicalist@aicalist.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to aicalist-request@aicalist.org.au.

You can unsubscribe from this list be sending ‘signoff aicalist’ (without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au

[cid:kkh37e7.gif]kkh

________________________________
The information contained in this e-mail and the attachments (if any) may be privileged and confidential and is intended solely for the named addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not print, retain copy, disseminate, distribute, or use this e-mail or any part thereof. Please notify the sender immediately by replying to this e-mail and delete all copies of this e-mail and the attachments.

MESSAGES POSTED TO THIS LIST ARE SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF ACIPC.

The use of trade/product/commercial brand names through the list is discouraged by ACIPC. If you wish to discuss specific reference to products or services by brand or commercial names, please do this outside the list.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives – registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new message send an email to aicalist@aicalist.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to aicalist-request@aicalist.org.au.

You can unsubscribe from this list be sending ‘signoff aicalist’ (without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au
MESSAGES POSTED TO THIS LIST ARE SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF ACIPC.

The use of trade/product/commercial brand names through the list is discouraged by ACIPC. If you wish to discuss specific reference to products or services by brand or commercial names, please do this outside the list.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives – registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new message send an email to aicalist@aicalist.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to aicalist-request@aicalist.org.au.

You can unsubscribe from this list be sending ‘signoff aicalist’ (without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au

If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message
is prohibited. If you have received this message in error please notify the sender immediately, then destroy the original message.
Any views expressed in this message are solely those of the individual sender, except where the sender is specifically authorised
by Adventist HealthCare Limited to state that they are the views of Adventist HealthCare Limited.
_____________________________________________________________________
This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by Symantec Hosted Services
Scanning Services – powered by MessageLabs. For further information
visit http://www.messagelabs.com

MESSAGES POSTED TO THIS LIST ARE SOLELY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR, AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE OPINION OF ACIPC.

The use of trade/product/commercial brand names through the list is discouraged by ACIPC. If you wish to discuss specific reference to products or services by brand or commercial names, please do this outside the list.

Archive of all messages are available at http://aicalist.org.au/archives – registration and login required.

Replies to this message will be directed back to the list. To create a new message send an email to aicalist@aicalist.org.au

To send a message to the list administrator send an email to aicalist-request@aicalist.org.au.

You can unsubscribe from this list be sending ‘signoff aicalist’ (without the quotes) to listserv@aicalist.org.au