Bacterial diversity among four healthcare-associated institutes in Taiwan

Abstract

Indoor microbial communities have important implications for human health, especially in health-care institutes (HCIs). The factors that determine the diversity and composition of microbiomes in a built environment remain unclear. Herein, we used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to investigate the relationships between building attributes and surface bacterial communities among four HCIs located in three buildings. We examined the surface bacterial communities and environmental parameters in the buildings supplied with different ventilation types and compared the results using a Dirichlet multinomial mixture (DMM)-based approach. A total of 203 samples from the four HCIs were analyzed. Four bacterial communities were grouped using the DMM-based approach, which were highly similar to those in the 4 HCIs. The α-diversity and β-diversity in the naturally ventilated building were different from the conditioner-ventilated building. The bacterial source composition varied across each building. Nine genera were found as the core microbiota shared by all the areas, of which Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, and Staphylococcus are regarded as healthcare-associated pathogens (HAPs). The observed relationship between environmental parameters such as core microbiota and surface bacterial diversity suggests that we might manage indoor environments by creating new sanitation protocols, adjusting the ventilation design, and further understanding the transmission routes of HAPs.

Bacterial profiles and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Isolates from inanimate hospital environments at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Teaching Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“…Sampling sites around a bed in each ICUs and OTs were chosen based on the frequency with which the surfaces were touched. Sterile swabs were moistened in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) and then, were used to swab (i) commonly touched medical equipment including beds, monitors, OR-light, linens, ventilators, oxygen supply, anesthesia machine, suction buttons and Laparoscopy (ii) workstation, including keyboards, computer mice; (iii) environments including floors, wall and corridors; (iv) Lobby (furniture) including chair, table, lockers and trowels; (v) Sinks; (vi) hospital textiles including bed linen based on methods described previously [17][18][19][20].…”

Temporal variations in bacterial community diversity and composition throughout intensive care unit renovations

“…An exhaustive study prospectively determined the microbiome of the wards in a newly completed hospital, finding a significant increase in human skin microbiota after hospital opening [9]. Other work has identified the durability of specific pathogens on hospital surfaces despite disinfection [10], which demonstrated that surface microbiomes vary depending on extent and diversity of human contact [11] and revealed the homogeneity of core microbiota across healthcare units [12]. These studies largely focused on hospital wards outside of the ICUs.…”

Cartography of opportunistic pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes in a tertiary hospital environment

“…The development of metagenomics has made it possible to profile the entire community structure, characterizing individual microbes without the need for isolation, and represents a high-throughput and scalable method for surveying the hospital environment microbiome 19 . This capability has been leveraged in the form of 16S rRNA sequencing to study bacterial diversity, particularly in intensive care units (ICU), in several early studies [20][21][22][23] . In a landmark study in 2017, Lax et al used this approach to extensively characterize microbial ecology, colonization and succession patterns in a newly built hospital environment (a subset with shotgun metagenomics) 24 .…”