Bacterial types causing respiratory infections in oil refinery

Background

Chronic bronchitis typically occurs in individuals with contributing factors such as smoking or environmental exposure to dust, which results in decreased mucus production and ciliary function. Although the role of bacterial infection in chronic bronchitis is unclear. Methodology: this study was carried out in the Northern Refinery Company (NRC), one of the biggest factories in the country, which is located in the north of Baiji city, 200 samples were collected from patients worked in the Northern Refineries Company in Baiji town, equal number of samples was collected from patients hospitalized in Tikrit teaching hospital as control. Swabs taken from upper respiratory tract and sputum samples taken from lower respiratory tract, as soon as possible taken to the laboratory, were cultured on four plates of culture media recommended for primary isolation of pathogens. All statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).