bioRxivJClub
Interconnected reservoirs of multidrug-resistant bacteria and plasmids within hospital plumbing infrastructure
bioRxiv · · Preprint · Open access
Annavajhala, Hokunson + 3 more
Abstract ↗AI summary
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Hospital sink drains and wastewater at a New York City hospital showed widespread longitudinal colonization by MDR-GNB, with sink drains at 54–73% and wastewater at 100%.
- Why it matters: Hospital plumbing is suspected to seed MDR-GNB transmission, but how environmental strains and resistance plasmids persist over time and relate to patient isolates is unclear.
- What they did: From March–August 2023, MDR-GNB were cultured from sink drains (n=523) and wastewater (n=146) and analyzed by nanopore sequencing, including strain/plasmid dynamics and relatedness to historical clinical isolates (n=602).
- The result: Both MDR-GNB strains and resistance plasmids were shared between clinical and environmental sources, with a distinct interplay between clinical and wastewater versus sink drain samples, informing surveillance design.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
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