1. Monitoring of hospital sewage shows both promise and limitations as an early-warning system for carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales in a low-prevalence setting.
- Author
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Flach CF, Hutinel M, Razavi M, Åhrén C, and Larsson DGJ
- Subjects
- Bacterial Proteins genetics, Hospitals, Humans, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Prevalence, Sweden, beta-Lactamases genetics, Enterobacteriaceae Infections, Sewage
- Abstract
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) constitute a significant threat to healthcare systems. Continuous surveillance is important for the management and early warning of these bacteria. Sewage monitoring has been suggested as a possible resource-efficient complement to traditional clinical surveillance. It should not least be suitable for rare forms of resistance since a single sewage sample contains bacteria from a large number of individuals. Here, the value of sewage monitoring in early warning of CPE was assessed at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, a setting with low prevalence of CPE. Twenty composite hospital sewage samples were collected during a two-year period. Carbapenemase genes in the complex samples were analyzed by quantitative PCR and the CPE loads were assessed through cultures on CPE-selective agar followed by species determination as well as phenotypic and genotypic tests targeting carbapenemases of presumed CPE. The findings were related to CPE detected in hospitalized patients. A subset of CPE isolates from sewage and patients were subjected to whole genome sequencing. For three of the investigated carbapenemase genes, bla
NDM , blaOXA-48-like and blaKPC , there was concordance between gene levels and abundance of corresponding CPE in sewage. For the other two analyzed genes, blaVIM and blaIMP , there was no such concordance, most likely due to the presence of those genes in non-Enterobacterales populating the sewage samples. In line with the detection of OXA-48-like- and NDM-producing CPE in sewage, these were also the most commonly detected CPE in patients. NDM-producing CPE were detected on a single occasion in sewage and isolated strains were shown to match strains detected in a patient. A marked peak in CPE producing OXA-48-like enzymes was observed in sewage during a few months. When levels started to increase there were no known cases of such CPE at the hospital but soon after a few cases were detected in samples from patients. The OXA-48-like-producing CPE from sewage and patients represented different strains, but they carried similar blaOXA-48-like -harbouring mobile genetic elements. In conclusion, sewage analyses show both promise and limitations as a complement to traditional clinical resistance surveillance for early warning of rare forms of resistance. Further evaluation and careful interpretation are needed to fully assess the value of such a sewage monitoring system., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2021
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