The prevalence of house dust mites in detached houses in the centre of Van

Karaman, R. Ö. The prevalence of house dust mites in detached houses in the centre of Van. Master's Thesis, Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Parasitology, Van, 2022. This study was conducted to compare the prevalence of dust mites in detached houses and apartments in Van province and to determine the mite species found in the houses. For the study, dust samples were collected from a total of 250 randomly selected houses, 150 of which were single-storey detached houses and 100 of which were apartments in İpekyolu and Tuşba districts of Van province. The samples collected from the houses with a vacuum cleaner with a suction power of 1200 W were examined by lactic acid dissolution method in the laboratories of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Faculty of Medicine for the determination of mite species. Mites were detected in 17 (6.8%) of the dust samples from a total of 250 houses, including 15 (10%) of the dust samples from 150 detached houses and 2 (2%) of the dust samples from 100 apartments. Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus was found to be the dominant species. In conclusion, the house dust mite density in Van province was found to be below the average house dust mite density in Türkiye and mite density was higher in detached houses than in apartment buildings.