Levels of indoor allergens in public hospitals in Thailand.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine levels of indoor allergens in five public hospitals in Thailand. Methods: A total of 90 dust samples were collected from five public hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand, during March 2002 to October 2003. These hospitals provide both adult and pediatric care to over 500 patients daily. Each dust sample was collected at 12.00-13.00 pm during the years 2002-2003. The total amount of dust was weighed and one hundred milligram of fine dust from each sample was extracted. A commercialized two-site monoclonal antibody-based immunoassay (Indoor Biotechnologies, Ltd., Manchester, UK) was used to quantify the levels of Der p1, Der f1, Can f1 and Fel d1. Results: Fifty-one out of 90 dust samples were positive for indoor allergens. Four common groups of allergens were analyzed and detected; Der p 1 8/90 (8.89%), Der f 1 1/90 (1.11%), Fel d 1 39/90 (43.33%) and Can f 1 3/90 (3.33%)(of total samples). The arithmetic mean and standard deviation were 0.06 ug/g±0.26, 0.08 x 10-2 ug/g ± 0.001, 0.39 ug/g± 0.71 and 0.06 ug/g±0.30 for Der p 1, Der f 1, Fel d 1 and Can f 1, respectively (p =0.004). Fel d 1, the highest density allergen extracted from dust samples from hospital no. 5 and it showed a statistical difference compared with hospitals no.1,2,3,4 was observed; p < 0.05.* Conclusion: Our findings indicated that cat allergen can be found in a hospital setting where no cat is present.