Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma

The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus contamination in the ambulances and on-call emergency medical service personnel of Kashan city in Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mohammad Paravar
Somaye Safavi
Razie Eghtesadi
Mahdi Mohamadzade
Mojtaba Sehat
Mohammadreza Fazel
Esmaeil Fakharian
Mohammadhosein Makki
Mahzad Erami
Tayebeh Taghipor
Abdolreza dayani najafabadi

Trauma Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.15171/jept.2019.13
Abstract
Objective: Emergency medical services systems are at the first line of dealing with patients who suffer from various infections. Conducting investigations on the bacterial contamination of emergency ambulances play a crucial role to improve the occupational health of staff as well as the quality of patient care. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of Staphylococcus aureus and other life treating bacteria in the urban and rural ambulances and their on-call emergency medical service personnel.
Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 12 front line pre-hospital emergency urban and rural ambulances in Kashan, Iran, in 2015. A total of 18 sites were sampled in each ambulance and from the nose of personnel. Grown colonies were confirmed based on colony morphology on mannitol salt agar plates, gram stain reaction and biochemical characteristics reactions.
Results: The S. aureus contamination was only isolated from the nose of on-call emergency medical service providers of 12 urban and road ambulances, while no sign of contamination was found in 18 sampling sites of these front-line ambulances. Also, further evaluation of these sampling sites revealed the contamination with coagulase-negative staphylococci in all of them and oxygen tank was introduced as the most contaminated site inside the ambulances. Moreover, the prevalence of equipment contamination was significantly higher in urban ambulances.
Conclusion: Identifying the rate of pathogens in clinical settings like the pre-hospital ambulance setting is an important issue which should be carefully considered.

Keywords

Emergency medical services
Bacterial contamination
Infection
Staphylococcus aureus
Subjects
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Journal of Emergency Practice and Trauma
Volume 6, Issue 1
January 2020
Pages 3-6

  • Receive Date 08 April 2019
  • Revise Date 10 June 2019
  • Accept Date 11 June 2019

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