Studies of the Impact of Occupational Exposure of Pharmaceutical Workers on the Development of Antimicrobial Drug Resistance

Abstract

of nasal fluids, mucuses and stools, respectively. Results: All the isolated species of bacteria exhibited significant enhancement of the degree of MDR in pharmaceutical workers compared with non-pharmaceutical subjects. Workers with a longer working history had greater degree of antibiotic resistance and vice versa. It can be certainly considered that the exposure of pharmaceutical workers to antibiotic agents resulted in a high incidence of multidrug resistance. Conclusions: Effective steps should be taken to minimize inherent exposure of pharmaceutical workers to antibiotics during work to prevent antimicrobial drug resistance. Antimicrobial drug resistance is a great problem for the treatment of infectious diseases all over the world. Resistance is increasing not only in low-and middleincome countries but also in high-income countries due to many reasons including the misuse of antibiotics and movement of infectious people all over the world 1) . The use of poor quality, degraded, expired, counterfeit and adulterated drugs are also among the several prime reasons 2) . In the above cases, the amounts of drugs administered into the human body fail to achieve the minimum effective concentration (MEC) levels; therefore, bacteria can easily develop resistance against the drugs when the drug is readministered. In general, workers in the pharmaceutical industries are constantly exposed to various chemical substances, such as organic solvents, vapors, dusts Pharmaceutical workers involved with the production of antimicrobial drugs are exposed to various antimicrobial chemicals in different steps of manufacturing such as grinding, sieving, compression, granulation, mixing and filling. These exposures may lead to the development of multidrug resistance (MDR) in bacteria. Scientific reports on the occupational health hazard of pharmaceutical workers involved in manufacturing antibiotics are scarce. The present study aimed to compare the degree of bacterial resistance in pharmaceutical workers in Bangladesh to that of individuals not involved in the pharmaceutical field. Methods: Twenty male workers from five local pharmaceutical companies and twenty male subjects not involved in the pharmaceutical field (non-pharmaceutical subjects) were randomly selected. Nasal fluid, mucus/cough and stool specimens were collected from each subject and were cultured separately at 37°C for 24 hours to obtain bacterial growth. The cultured species were then identified, isolated and subjected to microbial sensitivity testing against 18 different antibiotics from eight different groups by the disk diffusion method. Staphylococcus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Escherichia coli were identified and isolated from the culture

Penicillin dust exposure and penicillin resistance among pharmaceutical workers in Tehran, Iran

“…multi-drug resistance compared with non-pharmaceutical subjects. 16 In this study, the percentage of penicillin resistance was nearly 93% in pharmaceutical workers and 71.4% among food industry workers, indicating a high level of resistance in both groups. A similar result were reported by study of Sarker et al 16 in Bangladesh that showed 100% resistance to amoxicillin for pharmaceutical workers and 66.7% resistance for non-pharmaceutical workers.…”

“…16 In this study, the percentage of penicillin resistance was nearly 93% in pharmaceutical workers and 71.4% among food industry workers, indicating a high level of resistance in both groups. A similar result were reported by study of Sarker et al 16 in Bangladesh that showed 100% resistance to amoxicillin for pharmaceutical workers and 66.7% resistance for non-pharmaceutical workers. A surveillance by WHO on drug resistance has reported 33.9% S. pneumoniae resistance or non-susceptibility to penicillin in Iran, which is a much lower resistance level in comparison with the prevalence reported in this study.…”

“…Results indicated that all of the isolated species of bacteria showed a significant AMR in pharmaceutical workers compared with non-pharmaceutical subjects. 16 Penicillins are a class of antibiotics produced by some members of the genus Penicillium. 17,18 Penicillin was one of the first medications used against many bacterial infections caused by staphylococci and streptococci and still are used widely.…”

Evaluation of antimicrobial products used in tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) and whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei ) aquaculture

“…Although most of the products stated the withdrawal time, the depletion of antimicrobials in different fish species varied when treating bacterial diseases; provision of general information without indicating specific fish species is not sufficient to help farmers to manage the application of antimicrobial products and to avoid their overuse (Xu, Zhu, Wang, Deng, & Zhang, ). Additionally, none of the products stated information on how to protect the health of farmers when handling antimicrobial products, for example, exposure to antimicrobials, especially to injuries, might lead to skin allergy, organ‐specific reactions and the development of antimicrobial resistance (Sarker et al, ; Thong, ).…”

Effect of pesticides on Exopolysaccharide (EPS) production, antibiotic sensitivity and phosphate solubilization by Rhizobial isolates from Sesbania bispinosa in Bangladesh

“…The isolates were inoculated in Muller-Hinton Agar medium which was previously prepared with an addition of pesticide. Inhibition zone was measured in millimeter after an incubation of 24 h (Sarker et al, 2014). In this study, four antibiotics were used.…”