Survival of antibacterial resistance microbes in hospital-generated recycled wastewater

Hospital wastewater has the potential to be a threat to the hospital environment as it can contain pathogenic bacteria that may facilitate the resistant nature of organisms within effluent or water treatment plants. The recycling of hospital wastewater should have good quality. This study was carried out to highlight the incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospital-generated recycled water. This study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital during June 2013-June 2014. One hundred and forty wastewater samples were aseptically collected at different stages in the recycling plant. The samples were processed within 2 hours following standard procedures for identification of bacteria and the pathogenic bacteria were isolated. The mostly identified pathogens were Staphylococcus aureus (11.42%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9.28%), Enterococcus faecalis (10%) and Bacillus subtilis (8.57%) which were removed by treatment, but Escherichia coli (16.42%), Klebsiella pneumonia (8.57%), and Proteus mirabilis (11.42%) survived in the final sedimentation tank (lagoon) from where this water will be used for gardening purposes. An antibiogram study showed these pathogens were resistant to first-line antibiotics. Effluent treatment plants in hospitals should be monitored for the fulfillment of the guidelines and quality control of treated water to stop the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria in the hospital environment.