Abstract

Objective: To identify the relationship between different species of cockroaches with their bacterial infection in different wards of Hamedan county hospitals, western Iran. Methods: Using sticky trap, hand collection and glass trap, 250 cockroaches were collected from 14 wards of 5 hospitals. After having their identification determined by detection key, all of them were used to isolate bacteria from cuticle and alimentary tract. Results: From four identified species, Blatella germanica were the most common in all of the wards (88.8%) and next was the Periplaneta Americana (8%). 20 bacteria species isolated from cockroaches' surface and 21 from digestive organ. Escherichia coli were the most predominant bacteria isolated from external surface (26.5 %) as well as alimentary tract (30.8%). The frequency of investigated bacteria on cockroaches' body surface was not significantly different between Periplaneta Americana and Blattella germanica except for Kllebsiella oxytoca (P<0.001) and Providensia Spp (P=0.035). Also, frequency of detected bacteria in cockroaches' digestive organ was not significantly different between these two species. Furthermore, the frequency of bacteria isolated from the cockroaches' external surface was not significantly different from that of digestive organ except for shigella disantery (P<0.001), Pseudomonas aeroginosa (P<0.001 ) and Klebsiella oxytoca (P=0.01 3). Conclusions: Since cockroaches can carry pathogenic bacteria, so their existence in the hospitals could be a serious public health problem. It is suggested to compile programs in order to control cockroaches especially in the hospitals.

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