Abstract

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Hospital activities have resulted in increased discharge of untreated effluent into the environment, posing substantial risks to public health and the environment due to the presence of diverse harmful components, including extended spectrum β–lactamase (ESBL) producing bacteria harboring resistance genes, which are adding to the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This study aimed to assess the prevalence of ESBL genes in bacterial isolates from wastewater of two selected tertiary hospitals in Enugu State. A total of 20 samples were aseptically collected, transported and processed for bacteriological identification and susceptibility testing following standard procedures. Phenotypic and genotypic detection of extended spectrum beta lactamases (ESBL) were conducted following standard procedures. Screening for ESBL production was done by double disk synergy test and data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 23. A total of 65 bacterial isolates, 41(63.1%) Gram-negative and 24(36.9%) Gram-positive, were detected from the samples. Out of these isolates, ESBL production was observed in five 5(81%) isolates of Escherichia coli, thirteen 13(81%) isolates of Klebsiella spp and one 1(20%) isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The ESBL encoding genes- bla SHV, blaCTX-M, bla OXA, bla TEM were found in varying levels among the E. coli and Kleb. spp isolates, while the Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates were found to be harboring bla-CTXM, bla OXA, bla TEM genes, but bla SHV genes were absent. All the ESBL producers were multi-drug resistant, therefore proper treatment of hospital wastewater before discharge into the environment is highly recommended

Keywords: Antibiotics, bacteria, Enugu, extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) genes, hospital wastewater