Occurrence of Synanthropic Organisms in a Hospital Surgical Center

Abstract:
The growing urbanization process lead some organisms to rapidly set in the urban environment. These species, called synanthropic, can act as mechanical or biological vectors of microorganisms, and their occurrence represents a serious health risk. In Brazil, ants and cockroaches are the organisms most commonly found in hospitals. Although the hospital environment needs careful cleaning, some conditions facilitate the occurrence of pests, such as the entry of packaging and some medications, people with infested clothes and objects, and food. The objective of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of synanthropic organisms in the surgical center of a hospital located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, as a subsidy for hospital pest control programs. Collections were carried out from May to September 2010, using adhesive light traps, in the passage that gives access to the hospital surgical center, to catch flying insects; and manual collections were made twice a week in the central internal passageway of the surgical center, to catch crawling insects. In addition, the hospital occurrences form was consulted. The identification of the material collected was performed in the laboratories of the School of Biological Sciences of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Campinas. We collected 146 individuals distributed in six Orders: Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera and Araneae. Despite synanthropic ants are the greater concern because they constitute, currently, one of the most common pest groups in hospitals, there was a higher frequency of individuals of Order Diptera (66.1%). These individuals are the arthropod group of significant medical importance which contains intermediate hosts and transmitters of many diseases caused by virus (such as several encephalitis), protozoan (such as leishmaniasis) and helminths (such as lymphatic filariasis). Because specimens were not found in any of the surveys carried out and also there was no record in the hospital occurrences form, it suggests that the hospital is well protected against these synanthropic organisms. However, they must be controlled to prevent direct or indirect contaminations.