The effect of house design and environment on fungal movement in homes of bronchial asthma patients

The effect of house building design and environment on the fungal movement in the houses of 41 bronchial asthma (BA) patients has been investigated by examining house dust. The presence and composition of fungi were determine d and compared in relation to building structure, house age, size of living room, main flooring material, presence of a living-room rug or air purifie r, and frequency of vacuum cleaning. Among these elements, fungal CFU appar ently varied only between building structure: wooden-board houses had signi ficantly higher numbers of fungi than reinforced concrete houses (p < 0.01) , and wooden mortar or iron-framed prefabricated houses had significantly h igher numbers of fungi than reinforced concrete houses (p < 0.05). Classifi cation of the types of fungi present in the house dust of BA patients showe d that, regardless of the building designs, there were high levels of osmop hilic fungi (group A) and fungi that survive at relatively dry conditions ( group B), whereas fungi that survive in very wet conditions (group D) were present at low frequency.