Healthcare Workers as a Potential Source of Nosocomial Infections in the Regional Hospital of Korca, Albania

Objectives The study was undertaken to make evident the role of healthcare workers as an important source in transmission of nosocomial infections in the Regional Hospital of Korca, Albania. Methodology 169 swabs were taken from the hands, nose and throat of the healthcare workers in the hospital, doing the relevant bacteriological cultures. The swabs were cultured on Blood, MacConkey and Sabouro agars and incubated for 24hrs at 352C. Results 69 ( 40.8 %) cultures resulted positive and 100 ( 59.2 %) negative. From the positive bacterial isolates 59 ( 85.6 %) resulted with Staphylococcus aureus, 4 ( 5.8 %) isolates with E. coli, 1 ( 1.4 %) with Proteus spp, 1 ( 1.4 %) with Klebsiella spp and 4 ( 5.8 %) with Staphylococcus epidermidis. Conclusions The high percentage of pathogenic isolates through hospital workers at the Regional Hospital of Korca indicates a high potential risk of nosocomial infections in the hospital.