Prevalence of Fungi Isolates Inhabiting Hospital Effluent in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Fungal populations in hospital effluent have previously been understudied. Here, I evaluated the distribution of fungi isolates in a hospital effluent indiscriminately discharged into the environment in Southern Nigeria, within a 6 months period. The results of the study show that Fusarium species were the most predominant, with a frequency of occurrence of 31%, while Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Trichophyton species were the least populated. Overall, hospital effluent contains a number of fungi, which largely depends on the source of the effluent, and in most cases, are not different from the fungal population isolated from other sources (e.g. soil).

Keywords:Fungi; hospital effluent; public health; environment.