4070 Airborne Gram Negative Bacilli in the Indoor Environment of King Abdullah University Hospital, Jordan and Their Antibiotic Susceptibility Ismail Saadoun* 1 and Ibraheem Ali Al Tayyar 2 1 Department of Applied Biology, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 2 Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan Received: May 11, 2018; Published: May 21, 2018 *Corresponding author: Department of Applied Biology, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.04.001091 Ismail Saadoun. Biomed J Sci & Tech Res Cite this article: Ismail S, Ibraheem AAT. Airborne Gram Negative Bacilli in the Indoor Environment of King Abdullah University Hospital, Jordan and Their Antibiotic Susceptibility. Biomed J Sci &Tech Res 4(4)- 2018. BJSTR. MS.ID.001091. DOI: 10.26717/ BJSTR.2018.04.001091. Research Article Open Access Introduction Indoor air quality of hospitals is remarkably important because the hospital environment is full of pathogens which may cause no- socomial and other infections through airborne exposure. Airborne bacteria are one of these pathogens and evaluation of their count, types and diversity in hospitals rooms especially operating theatres (OT), intensive care units (ICU) and nursery intensive care units (NICU) is very important to control and prevent hospital acquired infections (HAI) as approximately 10% of all patient infections are suspected to be hospital-acquired [1]. In a previous study for the airborne methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the indoor environment of a referral university hospital, King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH), Jordan, Saadoun et al. [2] had identified 9.3% MRSA from all samples collected from the different wards of the hospital. In this study we report the measurements of airborne Gram negative ba- cilli (GNB) present in different wards of KAUH. Isolation and iden- tification of airborne GNB genera and/or species being impacted from the indoor environments of these units, and detection of the sensitivity of the isolates to commonly used antibiotics were also reported. Materials and Methods The Studied Hospital The KAUH used for monitoring purpose is a modern general hospital that was established in 2002 with a total capacity of 850 beds and a total staff of over 2000, and is located in Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid city in Northern ISSN: 2574-1241 Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the presence of airborne Gram negative bacilli (GNB) in the operating theatres (OT), intensive care units (ICU) and nursery intensive care units (NICU) of King Abdullah University Hospital (KAUH), Jordan and their susceptibility to different antibiotics. Thirty four air samples of 100 liters volume/min were collected by a microbiological air sampler from the above units during seven months. Air samples were impacted on trypticase soy agar (TSA) then incubated at 37 °C for 48 h. Each bacterial colony appeared on agar plates were sub-cultured on TSA or blood agar with incubation at 37 °C for 24-48 h, and then identified by standard methods. The average bacterial count in the OT, ICU and NICU was 88, 118 and 125 cfu/m 3 , respectively. From all GNB, Pseudomonas aeruginosa comprised 45%, 33.9% and 31% in the NICU, ICU and OT air samples, respectively. However, each of Acinetobacter spp. and Aeromonas spp. comprised 19.6% in the ICU and NICU air samples. Citrobacter freundii in the ICU comprised 28.3%. GNB bacilli showed a considerable resistance to antibiotics with the highest to nalidixic acid (38.2%) and to cloxacillin (32.4%), and the lowest to augmentin (3.6%) and to chloramphenicol (3.1%). It is concluded that designing of monitoring strategies should continue to keep monitoring of the presence and distribution of GNB in the hospitals’ environment. The extensive use of some antibiotics in hospitals for longer periods may lead to higher percentage resistance of GNB. Keywords: Airborne; Antibiotic; Bacteria; Gram negative bacilli; Hospital Abbreviations: GNB: Gram Negative Bacilli; OT: Operating Theaters; ICU: Intensive Care Unit; Nursery Intensive Care Unit; KAUH: King Abdullah University Hospital; HAI: Hospital Acquired Infections; MRSA: Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; TSA: Trypticase Soy Agar; MIO: Motility Indole Ornithin; MR-VP: Methyl Red-Voges Proskauer; TSI: Triple Sugar Iron; NCCL: National Committee for Clinical Laboratory