Profiles and seasonal distribution of airborne fungi in indoor and outdoor environments at a French hospital

International audience; A one-year prospective survey of fungal air contamination was conducted in outdoor air and inside two haematological units of a French hospital. Air was sampled with a portable Air System Impactor. During this period of survey, the mean viable fungal load was 122.1 cfu/m(3) in outdoor air samples, and 4.1 and 3.9 cfu/m(3) in samples from adult and pediatric haematology units, respectively. In outdoor samples, Cladosporium was the dominant genus (55%) while in the clinical units, Penicillium sp. (23 to 25%), Aspergillus sp. (15 to 23%) and Bjerkandera adusta (11 to 13%) were the most frequently recovered airborne fungi. The outdoor fungal load was far higher in autumn…

Dynamics of fungal colonization in a new medical mycology laboratory

International audience; Objective of the study. - Study of the spatio-temporal fungal colonization in a new medical mycology laboratory. Methods. - A 17-month survey of airborne fungal contamination was conducted in a new medical mycology laboratory at a tertiary care university hospital. This survey was implemented at three different periods: before the new premises were occupied (period A), during the move into the new laboratory (period B) and after resumption of the mycological activities in these new premises (period C). Results. - During period A, the airborne fungal load ranged from 2.3 to 6 cfu/m(3). The most frequently recovered airborne fungi were Penicillium spp. (75 to 100%). Du…

Hydro-contamination fongique par Fusarium spp. en milieu hospitalier pendant une période de construction

Evaluation of CandiSelect4, a new chromogenic medium for isolation and presumptive identification of Candida species from clinical specimens

Abstract In clinical laboratories, isolation of Candida species is generally based on the culture of specimens on Sabouraud dextrose agar. This strategy does not allow species identification on primary culture and makes it difficult to detect mixed cultures. Chromogenic media contain substrates that react specifically with different Candida species, and partly overcome these difficulties. Objectives The aim of this study was to compare two chromogenic media: (i) CandiSelect4 (C4), a new medium developed for direct identification of C. albicans and presumptive identification of C. krusei , C. tropicalis and C. glabrata (ii) CHROMagar Candida (CH), a medium licensed for direct identification …