Conjunctival microbial flora of clinically normal persons who work in a hospital environment

RESUMO

The objective of the work was to study the microbiota of the conjunctival secretion of health professionals. Samples were collected from the clinicallly normal eyes of 40 health professionals in four different sectors, Proctology, General Intensive Care (ICU), Male Ward, and Oncology of Hospital das Clínicas Dr Augusto Leite, Aracaju, SE, Brazil. Ten professionals from each sector were selected. The samples were inoculated into various culture media blood agar, Chapman agar, EMB medium (Teague), and Sabouraud dextrose agar with chloramphenicol. The bacteria most frequently isolated from all the sectors were Staphylococcus epidermidis (45.0 per cent) and Bacillus sp (29.0 per cent). The least frequent bacteria were Proteus sp (6.1 per cent), Staphilococcus aureus (4.1 per cent), Enterobacter sp (4.1 per cent), Alcaligenes sp (4.1 per cent), Citrobacter sp (2.1 per cent), Moraxella sp (2.1 per cent), and Proteus mirabilis (2.1 per cent). Fungi were not isolated. These results confirm the continuous contamination of the conjunctival sac of these professionals by the external environment, while at the same time confirming that the mechanisms of the local defence continue to be intact, preventing the fixatio of invading microorganisms.