Journal of Microbial & Biochemical Technology

Abstract

Targeted Inspection of Environmental Mycological Load for Mitigation of Indoor Mold toward Improved Public Health

Segula Masaphy and Rinat Ezr

Fungi and their toxic metabolites have been pinpointed as possible causes of sick building syndrome, an illness associated with poor indoor ventilation. Certain risk groups, such as hospitalized patients, the elderly and young children, tend to be more susceptible. Substantial effort has been devoted to establishing optimal fungal monitoring techniques and identification protocols. This overview screens the available monitoring and identification methods which may provide qualitative or quantitative information about the presence of particular fungi or their secondary metabolites/ mycotoxins and evaluation of their effect on the potential improvement in the associated health symptomology and the establishment of the pathophysiological mechanism involved in this process. Certain target locations, where mycological contamination is more likely to occur and certain risk groups that are in need of stricter environmental inspection and more refined fungal monitoring and identification protocols, are addressed. In assessing the impact of environmental inspection, there is no gold standard for the expected response rate in terms of fungal load reduction and its significance. This lack of standards and the limitations in associating specific fungal contamination with health effects may be related to the determination of indoor fungal load. This could be the result of either reporting biases of dampness or the choice of method used to monitor fungal load. Refined fungal monitoring and identification protocols are suggested for the more specific targeting of fungal isolates, their identification and quantification.