Insects associated with hospital environment in Egypt with special reference to the medically important species

Abstract EN

A study was planned to examine the insect fauna associated with two hospitals : urban (A) in Cairo and rural (B) in Banha, Egypt with varying hygienic levels and their adjacent residential areas (AC) and (BC), respectively and to investigate the effect of hygienic level on species composition and relative abundance.

A total of 22 species belonging to 7 orders and 15 families were reported in the four study areas of which, Dipterous flies were the most common (8 / 22, 36.36 % species).

A total of 5257 adults were collected of which Dipterous flies were the abundant (3800, 72.28 % insect) and Musca domestica was the most abundant species (3535, 67.24 % insect) which was present in all areas where it was more common / predominant species (21.94 %-90.91 % insect).

Moreover, higher densities of M.

domestica were in (B) and BC than in (A) or (AC).

The heavily infested area was AC (54.55 % species) followed by (A), (BC) and (B) however, the total number of the collected insects was higher in (BC) and (B) than in (AC) and (A).

This was confirmed by finding maximum diversity indices in (AC) and minimum ones in B.

In all areas, means of M.

domestica was more common during summer/ autumn and spring than in the winter.

Periplaneta americana collected only during autumn in AC and was more common in autumn in (BC) while Blatella germanica collected only during summer in (AC) and was more common in autumn in (B).

The prevalence and higher abundance of the medically important species mainly M.

domestica, P.

americana and B.

germanica in rural hospital than in urban one attribute mainly to the lower hygienic level of rural hospital This require a control program based mainly on sanitation supplemented by other measures to overcome the risk of disease transmission by such insects.