Hygienic status of central air conditioning ventilation systemsin public places in urban areas of Ma'anshan City / 预防医学

Objective@#To investigate the hygienic status of the central air conditioner ventilation system in public places in urban areas of Ma'anshan City, Anhui Province, so as to provide insights into formulation of supervision and management interventions.@*Methods@#A total of 15 public places with the central air conditioner ventilation system were randomly sampled from main urban areas in Ma'anshan City in 2022. Sampling and detection were performed following the standard GB/T 18204.5—2013 Examination methods for public places Part 5: Central air conditioning ventilation system, including total number of bacteria and total number of fungus on the inner surface of wind pipes, total number of bacteria and fungus, particulate matter (PM10) and β-hemolytic streptococci in the air supply system, and Legionella pneumophila in the cooling water, and the detection indicators were assessed following the WS 394—2012 Guideline for hygiene of the central air conditioner ventilation system in public places. The eligible rate of samples, the detection rate of L. pneumophila were analyzed.@*Results@#A total of 368 samples were collected from 15 public places, and the qualified rate was 50.54%, no places had all eligible measurement indicators. The qualified rates of total bacteria and fungus numbers on the inner surface of wind pipes were 52.67% and 59.33%. The qualified rates of total bacterium number, total fungus number, PM10 and β-hemolytic streptococci were 12.00%, 28.00%, 90.00% and 96.00% in the air supply system. The qualified rates of samples in administrative workplaces, hotels, bathing places and malls (supermarkets) were 32.50%, 59.24%, 61.09% and 68.92%, the qualified rates of total bacteria on the inner surface of air ducts were 8.33%, 72.46%, 66.67% and 61.90%, and the qualified rates of total fungus numbers in air supply were 0, 21.70%, 33.30% and 71.40%, respectively, with statistical significance (P<0.05). A total of 18 cooling water samples were collected, and L. pneumophila was detected in three samples (16.67%).@*Conclusions@#Poor hygiene is seen in the central air conditioning ventilation systems in public places in main urban areas of Ma'anshan City. High attention needs to be paid to contamination of bacterium, fungus and L. pneumophila, and expansion of supervision coverage and improved supervision intensity are recommended.

Microbial contamination, community diversity and cross-contamination risk of food-contact ice.

Ice is widely used in the food industry, as an ingredient (edible ice) directly added to food or as a coolant (food-contact ice) for fresh food preservation along the cold chain. However, it has been shown that food-contact ice are easily polluted by pathogens, potentially endangering the public's health. In the present study, the hygiene status of food-contact ice collected from various sources (local farmer markets, supermarkets, and restaurants) was evaluated through the quantitative estimation of total bacterial counts and coliform counts as well as the prevalence of foodborne pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Shigella). The average levels of total bacterial counts in the ice for preserving the aquatic products, poultry meat and livestock meat are 4.88, 4.18 and 6.11 log10 CFU/g, respectively. Over 90 % of the food-contact ice were positive for coliforms. The detection rate of S. aureus in all the food-contact ice samples was highest, followed by Salmonella, V. parahaemolyticus and L. monocytogenes, and Shigella was not detected. In addition, the bacterial community diversity of food-contact ice was analyzed with high-throughput sequencing. The dominant bacteria taxa in food-contact ice are heavily dependent on the environment of sampling sites. The predicted phenotypes of biofilm forming, oxidative stress tolerance, mobile element containing and pathogenesis were identified in the bacteria taxa of food-contact ice, which should be carefully evaluated in future work. Finally, the cross-contamination models of pathogen transfer during ice preservation were established. The results showed that the transfer rates of ice-isolated S. aureus between food and ice were significantly higher than that of V. parahaemolyticus. The binomial distribution B(n, p) exhibited a better fitness to describe the pathogen transfer during ice preservation when the transfer rate was low, in turn, the transfer rate-based probability model showed a better fit to the data when the transfer rate was high. Monte Carlo simulation with Latin-Hypercube sampling was carried out to predict the contamination levels of S. aureus and V. parahaemolyticus on food as the result of cross contamination during ice preservation ranging from -2.90 to 2.96 log10 CFU/g with a 90 % confidence interval. The findings of this work are conducive to a comprehensive understanding of the current hygiene status of food-contact ice, and lay a theoretical foundation for the risk assessment of cross-contamination during ice preservation.

Sanitary and Hygienic Status and Associated Factors Among Food and Drinking Establishments of Burayu Town, Oromia, Ethiopia.

Background: Foodborne diseases (FBDs) are a major public health concern in both developed and developing countries, as they comprise a broad spectrum of diseases and account for a significant proportion of morbidities and mortalities worldwide. In Ethiopia, the food and drinking establishments contribute to the incidence of foodborne diseases often associated with outbreaks that end up threatening global public health security. Objective: To assess sanitation and hygienic status and associated factors among food and drinking establishments in Burayu town, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design with a systematic sampling technique was used. Data were collected from 257 food and drinking establishments' managers/owners using questionnaires and observational checklists. Data were entered by Epi data version 3.1 and exported to BIM SPSS version 21 for data analyses. Both descriptive and analytic statistics were employed. Statistical significance was considered at a P value less than 0.05 at a 95% confidence interval. Results: The study revealed that 47.9% of the food and drinking establishments were in poor sanitation and hygienic status. The study showed that male managers (AOR: 9.29, 95% CI: 2.97-21.14), managers less than 40 years old (AOR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.03-4.36), more than five years services (AOR: 3.66, 95% CI: 1.66-8.07), lack of clean basin (AOR: 2.92, 95% CI: 0.10-11.47), absence of liquid waste drainage system installations (AOR: 3.26, 95% CI: 0.12-0.62) were significantly associated with poor sanitation and hygienic status of food and drinking establishments. Conclusion and Recommendation: The findings indicated that high prevalence of poor sanitation and hygienic status of the food and drinking establishments. Therefore, the establishments should avail waste drainage system, clean basin, renew the establishment providing the service for many years and encourage female empowerment to fulfill and maintain sanitation and hygienic status of their establishments.

[THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE FORMATION OF THE ATTITUDE OF THE POPULATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION TO THE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES].

The pandemic of new coronavirus infection continues affecting many areas of public life. Against the background of arising variations, occur changes in people's psychological condition and in belief systems and attitudes to many fields of human knowledge, including medicine. The purpose of the study is to evaluate potential effect of COVID-19 pandemic on developing civil liability of the population of the Russian Federation regarding anti-epidemic activities to fight infectious diseases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The special anonymous on-line questionnaire was developed and placed on popular social platforms in open access. The questionnaire included two parts and contained 27 closed alternative questions with only one alternative to answer. The respondents included persons older than 18 years agreed to participate in survey. The data gathering provided for three subsequent stages. The final sampling consisted of 1350 respondents, out of them 1230 were citizen of the Russian Federation and 120 representatives of the near abroad. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: More than 65% of respondents confirmed positive changes of one's attitude to sanitary hygienic activities to better sense. Among them, 63.3% began to wash hands more regularly and 62.2% began to apply hand antiseptic more often. The comparing of study results by individual characteristics revealed a significant effect of primary hygienic status of respondents on magnitude of fixed changes. It is established that during 5 months the population readiness to be vaccinated by one of the registered national vaccines was increasing and level of uncertainty was decreasing. Among respondents 73.5% marked increasing of individual responsibility of citizens for hygienic practices. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated significant improvement of population attitude to sanitary hygienic practices after onset of pandemic. The greatest changes are observed in individuals with initially sufficient levels of hygienic commitment. On the basis of study results, the conclusion can be made about significant increasing of civil liability of the population of the Russian Federation for hygienic practices, especially against the background of COVID-19 pandemic.

Survey on hygienic status of large bottles of medical ultrasonic coupling gel / 中国感染控制杂志

Objective To investigate the hygienic status of large bottles of medical ultrasonic coupling gel in medical institution.Methods From February 2012 to April 2016, microbial contamination of large bottles of medical ultrasonic coupling gel in a women and children''s hospital was investigated and analyzed through on-the-spot random sampling and detection method.Results A total of 170 large bottles of medical ultrasonic coupling gel specimens were collected, 25 specimens were qualified, the qualified rate was 14.71％.Specimens were mainly from inpatient wards(58.24％) and operating departments(21.76％);there was no statistical difference in the qualified rate of specimens in each department(P>0.05).Contamination rates of coupling gel before and after the opening were both>80％, difference was not significant(P>0.05).A total of 145 strains of pathogenic bacteria were isolated, 18 of which were from unopened bottles, and 127 from opened bottles.Burkholderia cepacia was the main strain in both unopened and opened bottles, which accounting for 83.33％ and 54.33％ respectively,in addition, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens were also isolated from opened bottles, both were 15.75％, mixed contamination bacteria all included Serratia marcescens Conclusion The total bacteria counts in medical ultrasonic coupling gel in large bottles exceed the standard seriously, the manufacturer should strictly observe the quality control standards, medical institutions should adopt effective cleaning and disinfection measures.