Management Program of Pest Control in a Public Hospital

Abstract:
Health services are colonized by urban pests, being generally an integral part of urban infrastructure, especially considering the neotropical climate that is warm and wet. Therefore, pest control is widely quoted in our legislation and hospitals should be free of pests. In practice, it is observed that these services are generally outsourced, not suffering any type of surveillance. For this, a management program was developed at the hospital in Botucatu - Sao Paulo, which is part of a University Campus and has approximately 400 beds. The buildings are from the 1960´s and all campus is surrounded by green areas. The methodology aims to monitor the presence of the vector through spreadsheet pest reporting, which is forwarded to the control infection commission. The sites are inspected for indication of appropriate procedures and results are evaluated over time. The management requires the identification of species present, training the staff and coordinating the insecticide applications, according to hospital routine. In 2010, were registered by the control infection commission a total of 95 occurrences. After two years of program implementation the predominant pests in the hospital until 2010 September are Periplaneta americana (25% of infestation), followed by ants (21% of infestation, predominant species are Brachymyrmex sp.) and Tityus serrulatus (19% of infestation), with an average reduction of infestation around 30% over the previous year. Other pest presents at the occurrence formularies are Columba livia (15%), Culex spp. (14%) and rats (2%), followed by occasional animals that invade hospital environment like spiders, flies, bugs and a possum. These results demonstrate that the management of pest control in hospital is effective and should be conducted on a continuous basis, being suggested to all health services.