Abstract
Hospital environmental conditions, human occupancy, and the characteristics of the equipment influence the survival of microbial communities and raise a concern with regard to nosocomial infections. The objective of the present work was to use the monitoring of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella spp. and non-tuberculous mycobacteria as a strategy to improve knowledge on microbial colonization of non-critical equipment and surfaces, in a tertiary hospital from Central Portugal. A 3-month microbiological survey was performed in a district teaching hospital. A total of 173 samples were obtained from the wards Hematology, Urology, Medicine, and Renal Transplants, and 102 presumptive strains recovered. Per sampling, Pseudomonas Isolation agar showed 42.8 to 73.3% of presumptive P. aeruginosa colonies and MacConkey agar recovered mostly Staphylococcus. Most of the colonies recovered in Middlebrook 7H10-PANTA belonged to the genus Methylobacterium. Taps and WC shower curtains carry high bacterial species diversity. The Redundancy Analysis grouped the samples in those mostly handled by patients, and those mostly handled by healthcare staff or of mixed use. This study shows that the preferential users of the space and equipment seem to be important contributors to the microbial community. The most recovered genus was Methylobacterium, known as colonizer of the water distribution system therefore, it is possible that the water points and biofilms in taps also contribute as dispersion hotspots.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financial supported by Instituto Piaget, Portugal, under the project “Estudo da prevalência e da variabilidade genética de estirpes de Pseudomonas aeruginosa e de Mycobacterium sp. em ambiente hospitalar” and by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal under the project Projecto PTDC/BIA-MIC/114958/2009- “ArsTOOL-Construção de um bioacumulador para biorremediação de arsénio” Pedro Farias was supported by an Instituto Piaget fellowship. Susana Alarico was supported by FCT fellowship SFRH/BPD/43321/2088. We thank the directing office and staff of the Hematology, Medicine A, and Urology/Renal Transplants wings as well as Dr. Filomena Coelho from the Centre for Infection Control Office.
Author’s Contributions
Conception of the project and responsible for obtaining funding support PVM, AFA, NE. Bacterial work performed by PF, FG, CM, PVM, mycobacterium work performed by DR, SA, FG, NE. First draft produced by PVM, PF, writing and discussing of the manuscript by PF, PVM, SA, NE. All authors agree to act as guarantors of the work, ensuring that questions related to any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
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Geadas Farias, P., Gama, F., Reis, D. et al. Hospital microbial surface colonization revealed during monitoring of Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and non-tuberculous mycobacteria. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 110, 863–876 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-017-0857-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-017-0857-z