Brief Report
Evaluation of the contaminant organisms of humidifier reservoir water and investigation of the source of contamination in a university hospital in Turkey

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Materials and methods

Between April 19 and May 7, 2002, a total of 50 water samples were collected from oxygen humidifier reservoirs of different clinics at the Istanbul University, Istanbul faculty of medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.

Results

A total of 54 different contaminants were isolated from 32 (64%) of 50 oxygen humidifier reservoirs water: 23 (46%) were contaminated with fungi, and 15 (30%) with bacteria. Distribution of these contaminants was as follows:

Discussion

The humidifiers reservoirs water were heavily contaminated with fungi (46%) and bacteria (30%). Some of these contaminants such as Aspergillus spp, Scedosporium spp, Penicillum spp, F oryzihabitans, and P aeruginosa are known as potentially lower respiratory tract pathogenes and life-threatening in immunocompromised hosts and even outbreaks.1, 7, 8 Investigating the reasons of water contamination have showed that there were 2 main reasons for contamination of our hospital humidifiers: first,

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