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Abstract
Infants born before 28 weeks are at risk of contracting healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which could be caused by pathogens residing on contaminated hospital surfaces. In this longitudinal study, we characterized by NGS the bacterial composition of nasal swabs of preterm newborns, at the time of birth and after admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), comparing it with that of the environmental wards at the time of delivery and during the hospitalization. We characterized the resistome on the samples too. The results showed that environmental microorganisms responsible for HAIs, in particular Staphylococcus spp., Streptococcus spp., Escherichia-Shigella spp., and K. pneumoniae, were detected in higher percentages in the noses of the babies after 13 days of hospitalization, in terms of the number of colonized patients, microorganism amount, and relative abundance. The analysis of nasal bacteria resistome evidenced the absence of resistance genes at the time of birth, some of which appeared and increased after the admission in the NICU. These data suggest that hospital surface microbiota might be transported to respiratory mucosae or other profound tissues. Our study highlights the importance of a screening that allows characterizing the microbial profile of the environment to assess the risk of colonization of the newborn.
Highlights
Preterm infants, born before 28 weeks, receiving care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at high risk for contracting healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) [1,2]
A longitudinal study was carried out analysing the bacterial composition of nasal swabs, of low-weight preterm newborns at birth and after admission to the NICU comparing it with that of the environmental surfaces of the wards at the time of delivery and during the period of hospitalization
This study investigated the potential influence of the environment microbiome on preterm newborns’ colonization admitted to the NICU
Summary
Born before 28 weeks, receiving care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at high risk for contracting healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) [1,2]. HAIs are significant causes of morbidity and mortality in NICUs [3], with a prevalence that goes from 6% to 50% and mortality between 20% and 80%, depending on the risk factors [4,5]. Neonatal infections are classified into early onset infections (occurring in the first 72 h of life) contracted at the time of delivery and late-onset infections, which occur after 72 h from birth, related to acquisition at home, or in hospital settings [9]. Early onset sepsis often represents a fatal illness, among newborn infants of the lowest gestational age. Bacterial bloodstream infection is one of the most common events in hospitalized newborns [10], mainly caused by coagulase negative staphylococci [11]
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