Surveillance and prevalence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria from public settings within urban built environments: Challenges and opportunities for hygiene and infection control

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria present one of the biggest threats to public health; this must not be forgotten while global attention is focussed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Resistant bacteria have been demonstrated to be transmittable to humans in many different environments, including public settings in urban built environments where high-density human activity can be found, including public transport, sports arenas and schools. However, in comparison to healthcare settings and agriculture, there is very little surveillance of AMR in the built environment outside of healthcare settings and wastewater. In this review, we analyse the existing literature to aid our understanding of what surveillance has been conducted within different public settings and identify what this tells us about the prevalence of AMR. We highlight the challenges that have been reported; and make recommendations for future studies that will help to fill knowledge gaps present in the literature.

Isolation of Efficient Xylooligosaccharides-Fermenting Probiotic Lactic Acid Bacteria from Ethnic Pickled Bamboo Shoot Products

“…Antibiotics are the most effective drugs available for the treatment of bacterial infections [31]. When LAB are used as probiotics, they are known to harbor antibiotic-resistant genes that can be transferred to pathogenic bacteria and the commensal bacteria present in the gut [32], which in turn can cause significant suffering to people with pathogen infections [11]. Therefore, probiotics that are sensitive to commonly prescribed antibiotics at low concentrations have a desirable character.…”

Antibiotic resistance and virulence factor gene profile of A. hydrophila isolated from carp (Cyprinidae) suspected with hemorrhagic septicemia in Gilan, Iran

“…have been reported in several countries (L'Ab ee-Lund and Sørum 2001; Henriques et al 2006;Nawaz et al 2010;Ndi and Barton 2011;Lukkana et al 2012;Otero-Olarra et al 2020). Different prevalence of these genes in distinct geographical regions might be due to the different antibiotic usage and different sources of isolates (Dobiasova and Dolejska 2016;Cave et al 2021).…”

Pathogen Control in the Built Environment: A Probiotic-Based System as a Remedy for the Spread of Antibiotic Resistance

“…Among Staphylococcus species, Staphylococcus aureus can cause communityand hospital-associated infections [67,68], and its increasing AMR during the last decades renders it one of the major agents of nosocomial and community-associated infections [69]. Originally detected only in the healthcare settings, Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) has now spread also to domestic environments [70]. Similarly, coagulase-negative staphylococci (including S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. hominis and S. saprophyticus, all associated with severe infections in the hospital setting) are now often found also in non-healthcare settings [71], which play an important role in horizontal transfer of AMR genes [72].…”

“…The recent studies highlighting the continuous relationship between the BE, its microbiome, and occupants, provided a base for designing intervention strategies aimed to restore a healthy BE microbiome through the rebalance of the indoor microbial community. Compared to the healthcare environment, there is little surveillance of AMR in human non-healthcare settings; however, MDR bacteria transmission has been reported in many different public urban settings, where high-density human activity can be detected, such as public transport, sports arenas, and schools [70]. The COVID-19 pandemics has introduced massive chemical disinfection in all BE types, but the AMR threat for public health should not be forgotten while global attention is focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.…”