Bacteriological Quality of Aerial Ambient Air in Selected Creche and Daycare Centers in Ugbowo, Benin City

Abstract

This research was conducted to evaluate the bacteriological quality of
aerial ambient air in selected creche and daycare centers in Ugbowo,
Benin City. Indoor air samples were collected (plates exposed for 30 and
45 minutes) from two daycare centers (SCH A and SCH B) and subjected
to bacteriological analyses. The airborne bacterial burden,
characterization, antibiogram and multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR)
index were evaluated. Multiple comparisons (Turkey test) were used to
analyze collected data. Results revealed significantly higher bacterial
count for plates exposed for and 45 min over 30 min. more so, there was
no difference (P>0.05) between plates incubated for 24 h and 48 h. The
bacterial count for ranged between 0.1850 to 0.4444 ×103
cfu/m3 and
0.3704 to 0.3889 ×103
cfu/m3
for SCH A and Sch B respectively.
Comparing an enriched with a general purpose medium, bacterial count
for Columbia blood agar was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the later.
E. coli, Bacillus, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas were found in
the indoor air of SCH A and B classrooms. Following sanitary standards,
there were intermediate to high level of contamination for SCH A and B
during period of class activities. The antibiogram of the isolates revealed
that they were susceptible to gentamicin while resistance was seen in
most of the tested antibiotics thus confirming that these isolates were
multiresistant. All isolated bacteria were found to have MAR index
greater than 0.2. This further connotes that the pathogens were from high
sources of contamination and have a public health importance.