Abstract
Hospital wastewaters (HWWs) are reported to be hotspots for antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, limited information involves the impact of these effluents on dissemination of antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs). In this study, therefore, seasonally collected HWWs were monitored for overall bacterial load and seven ARGs aadA, tetA, cmlA, sul1, qnrS, ermBandblaCTX-Mby using quantitative polymerase chain reaction method. Overall bacterial 16S rRNA copy number was found to be the lowest in winter with 103copy number/mL, while the highest copy number, with 105copy number/mL, was observed in both summer and spring. All hospitals tested displayed similar seasonal ARG copy number profile ofaadA > tetA > cmlA≈sul1 > ermB≈qnrS > blaCTX-M. The results indicated that untreated HWWs were hotspots for ARGs and required attention before discharging into public sewer.
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