Assessment of microbiological air quality in hemato-oncology units and its relationship with the occurrence of invasive fungal infections: an integrative review

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Mayra Goncalves Menegueti, Lecio Rodrigues Ferreira, Magda Fabbri Isaac Silva, Anderson Soares da Silva, Fernando Bellissimo-Rodrigues
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2013
• Subjects: Airborne fungal infections; Invasive aspergillosis; High-efficiency particulate air filter; Hematology; Bone marrow transplantation; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0022-2013; https://doaj.org/article/04854dbc315445a7a2dcbc7595f62cba

Worldwide aging of the human population has promoted an increase in the incidence of neoplasia, including hematological cancers, which render patients particularly vulnerable to invasive fungal infections. For this reason, air filtration in hemato-oncology units has been recommended. However, scarce literature has assessed the impact of microbiological air quality on the occurrence of fungal infections in this population. We performed an integrative review of studies in the MEDLINE database that were published between January 1980 and October 2012, using the following combinations of keywords: air × quality × HEPA, air × quality × hematology, and airborne fungal infections. The search yielded only 13 articles, suggesting that high-efficiency filtering of the ambient air in hemato-oncology units can prevent the incidence of invasive fungal infections. However, no randomized clinical trial was found to confirm this suggestion. Currently, there is no consensus about the maximum allowable count of fungi in the air, which complicates filtration monitoring, including filter maintenance and replacement, and needs to be addressed in future studies.