WOS: 000384033100014Pathogenic or opportunist fungi in hospital environments may be a source of infection in susceptible hosts. Especially for newborn intensive care units of hospitals, the control of the fungal spore and knowing the incidence of mycobiota in hospitals are of great importance in order to understand the types of infections and the problems caused by them. In this study, the level of endogenous airborne fungal concentrations and the types of fungi were determined at Ege University Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Neonatal Unit, which is located centre of Izmir. For this purpose, air samples were collected at 14 selected stations monthly during twelve months with the Merck MAS 100 air sampler. As a result, a total of 2631 fungal colonies were counted. Sixty two fungal species belonging to 12 genera were identified. These species consisted of Aspergillus (12), Penicillium (24), Cladosporium (10), Alternaria (6) and other species (10). The 6 microfungi were identified only in genus level. The most prevalent genera were the common moulds; Aspergillus (39.33 +/- 51.43), Penicillium (23.00 +/- 23.50), Cladosporium (74.33 +/- 63.43) and Alternaria (20.17 +/- 25.09). In this study, aimed to emphasize the importance of monitoring the presence of airborne fungal biota, particularly Aspergillus spp. in the newborn intensive care units where newborns and especially premature babies were hospitalized and opportunistic pathogenic species such as A.flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger and A. terreus were isolated.Ege University, Science Faculty; BAP Project, Ege UniversityEge University [12 FEN 014]The authors would like to extend their thanks to Ege University, Science Faculty. This work was supported by BAP Project (12 FEN 014), Ege University
