Background: Hospitals are hotspots for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), and play a significant role in their emergence and spread. Large numbers of ARGs will be ejected from hospitals via wastewater systems. Wastewater-based epidemiology has been consolidated as a tool to provide real-time information, and represents a promising approach to understanding the prevalence of bacteria and ARGs at community level.
Aims: To determine bacterial diversity and identify ARG profiles in hospital wastewater pathogens obtained from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) isolation hospitals compared with non-COVID-19 facilities during the pandemic.
Methods: Wastewater samples were obtained from four hospitals: three assigned to patients with COVID-19 patients and one assigned to non-COVID-19 patients. A microbial DNA quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to determine bacterial diversity and ARGs.
Findings: The assay recorded 27 different bacterial species in the samples, belonging to the following phyla: Firmicutes (44.4%), Proteobacteria (33.3%), Actinobacteria (11%), Bacteroidetes (7.4%) and Verrucomicrobiota (3.7%). In addition, 61 ARGs were detected in total. The highest number of ARGs was observed for the Hazem Mebaireek General Hospital (HMGH) COVID-19 patient site (88.5%), and the lowest number of ARGs was found for the HMGH non-patient site (24.1%).
Conclusion: The emergence of contaminants in sewage water, such as ARGs and high pathogen levels, poses a potential risk to public health and the aquatic ecosystem.
Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance gene; Bacteria; COVID-19; Hospital; Wastewater-based epidemiology.
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