Sewage water from a hospital and its impact to microbial profiles: a case study

Abstract

Waste generation and its management present universal challenges related to negative impacts on the environment. Hospital sewage due to its high concentrations of antimicrobials exerts pressure on microorganisms that leads to the development of resistant strains. The current study sought to determine microbial diversity and antibiotic profile of isolated strains from St. Joseph's hospital sewage water disposal ponds, Roma, Lesotho. The antibiotic susceptibility test was done using the most commonly applied antibiotics viz. ampicillin, amoxicillin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, kanamycin, neomycin, norfloxin, streptomycin and vancomycin in the region. Following EUCAST 2012 standard procedure, a total of six dominant bacterial isolates, of which E coli, Klebsiella spp, Enterobacter spp, Streptococcus spp and Pseudomonas spp were identified. Some isolates were found 100% resistant against ampicillin, amoxycillin and vancomycin, while others were susceptible to ciprofloxacin and norfloxin. The effect of other antibiotics was found to be at intermediate and susceptible percentage fractions against some isolates. The study prevails that the presence of resistant microorganisms in hospital sewage water need stringent waste management policy to study periodically the antibiotic profile of hospital sewage water to avoid the development of potential risks by nosocomial contaminants.