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214721

Assessment of Workers’ Exposure to Aspergillus in Wastewater Treatment Plant

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Biochemistry

Abstract

Workers in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are facing an overwhelming threat due to heavy exposure to fungal bioaerosol, mainly Aspergillus, released into the surrounding environment for a long time. This results in critical respiratory problems, especially for workers suffering from immunodeficiency. 60 out of 85 WWTP workers were selected for this study. The study's goal was to find out which Aspergillus species were prevalent among those plant exposed workers. For the detection of the sputum PCR results and serum specific IgE (sIgE) of three Aspergillus species (A. fumigatus, A. niger, and A. flavus) for the aforementioned selected workers, nested PCR and ELISA techniques were utilized. Our study revealed that 76.6% of the workers' sputum specimens were positive for Aspergillus. 21.7% of total positive samples tested positive for A. niger, 19.6% for A. flavus, and 2.2% for A. fumigatus. Additionally, 56.5% of workers showed mixed positive results. Furthermore, sIgE of A. niger increased significantly among A. niger positive workers compared to negative workers. Intriguingly, sIgE for different species of Aspergillus exhibited increasing levels among positive workers than among negative ones. Thus, both the significance and non-significance results of sIgE have to be seriously taken into consideration. To summarise, prolonged fungal exposure in WWTPs could be regarded as a potential health hazard. In addition, the results of the Aspergillus sIgE test should not be overlooked and thus should be considered a warning sign. Further investigations were recommended for those who have elevated Aspergillus sIgE.

DOI

10.21608/ejchem.2022.101284.4715

Keywords

Key words: Aspergillus, wastewater treatment plant, specific IgE, Aspergillus exposed workers

Authors

First Name

Wafaa

Last Name

Shousha

MiddleName

G.

Affiliation

Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Helwan University, Ain Helwan, Cairo, Egypt.

Email

wafaashousha@gmail.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

First Name

Amal

Last Name

Hussein

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Professor of Environmental Health & Preventive Medicine - Environmental and Occupational Medicine Department-National Research Centre.

Email

amel_h@hotmail.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Gehan

Last Name

Moubarz

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Assist. Prof. of biochemistry and environmental molecular biology. Environmental & Occupational Medicine Department- Division of Environmental Research- National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.

Email

gehanmoubarz@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

0000-0002-8335-8723

First Name

Shiamaa

Last Name

Shawki

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

assistant professor of Biochemistry - Faculty of Science - Helwan University

Email

shiamaa.shawki@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Michael

Last Name

Shawky

MiddleName

Mounir

Affiliation

Biochemistry department, faculty of science, Helwan university, Cairo, Egypt

Email

dr_michael_bio@yahoo.com

City

Cairo

Orcid

-

Volume

65

Article Issue

8

Related Issue

31862

Issue Date

2022-08-01

Receive Date

2021-10-17

Publish Date

2022-08-01

Page Start

77

Page End

83

Print ISSN

0449-2285

Online ISSN

2357-0245

Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/article_214721.html

Detail API

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=214721

Order

9

Type

Original Article

Type Code

297

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Chemistry

Publication Link

https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Assessment of Workers’ Exposure to Aspergillus in Wastewater Treatment Plant

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023