Surveillance of environmental contamination by antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant pathogens: abridged secondary publication
K Fukuda1, T Lam1, H Tun1, JSM Peiris1, BJ Cowling1, T Zhang2
1 School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2 Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
 
 
  1. A great diversity of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) including mobile colistin resistance genes are identified from sewage of Queen Mary Hospital and influent and effluent of Sandy Bay Preliminary Treatment Works.
  2. A large amount of multi-drug-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates are obtained from samples.
  3. Abundance of several ARGs is associated with water temperature. The use of fluoroquinolone in hospitals is positively associated with the abundance of fluoroquinolone resistance genes.
  4. The resistome profile of the sewage from a hospital site has higher similarity to that of the influent at Sandy Bay Preliminary Treatment Works.