Monitoring of Aspergillus Fumigatus Prior to and During the Pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 in Samples of Indoor Air in an Intensive Care Unit of a Public Hospital in the City of São Paulo, Brazil

The presence of biological agents in the indoor air at hospitals creates conditions that may compromise its safety. Fungi that belong to the Aspergillus genus are highly distributed and some of its species are of medical interest, frequently appearing as some of the main cause of opportunistic infections, and Aspergillus fumigatus is prominently in hospital infections, mainly associated to immunocompromised patients. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the control of dispersion of microorganisms in hospital environments has become an interest. Methods: The analyzed hospital is reference for infecto-contagious diseases with high prevalence of immunosuppressed patients; 93 air samples were collected for three years (2019, 2020, 2021); 68 samples prior to and 25 samples during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, randomly, in eight different environments (five ICU bedrooms, nursing station and medicine station). The identification of Aspergillus genus species was performed using the mass spectrometry technology, MALDI-TOF. Results: 182 fungal colonies were isolated, distributed in 11 different genera, where 74% (N=69) showed growth of Aspergillus genus, followed by Penicillium genus with 62% (N=58). All air samples (N=93) showed fungi growth (100%) and, the Aspergillus genus was isolated for the whole period and in all environments analyzed. In 28% of the samples (N=26), the relation pattern of biological particles concentration was out of the limits recommended by the Brazilian legislation. Among the out of the acceptable limit samples, 15% (N=4) showed excessive growth of A. fumigatus colonies. Conclusions: The Aspergillus genus was present in large scale in the analyzed hospital environments, in addition to A. fumigatus being the most incident species and environments inside the ICUs with higher circulation of different people, such as medication station, showed a larger amount of disperse microorganisms and may be target of future studies for microbiological environmental control measures. Funding Statement: None. Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflict of interest.