Joana Almeida

Among the 2,105 Enterobacteriaceae tested in a survey done in Portugal, 165 were nonsusceptible to carbapenems, from which 35 (26 Klebsiella pneumoniae , 3 Escherichia coli , 2 Enterobacter aerogenes , and 3 Enterobacter cloacae isolates and 1 Klebsiella oxytoca isolate) were confirmed to be carbapenemase producers by the presence of 30 Tn 4401d- bla _KPC-3 , 4 intI 3- bla _GES-5 , and one intI 1- bla _VIM-2 gene, alone or in combination with other bla genes. The dissemination of bla _KPC-3 gene carried by an IncF plasmid suggests lateral gene transfer as a major mechanism of dissemination.

House dust is a repository and concentrator of many chemical and biological agents including fungi. Considering that dust acts as a long-term reservoir of airborne fungi and that cumulative exposure is more relevant to potential health problems than single-day or short-term exposure, characterization of fungal communities in dust samples is of paramount importance. In the present study, the fungal composition of Portuguese house dust samples was determined. A total of 28 samples were obtained from vacuum cleaner deposits from households located in central Portugal. DNA was extracted from dust samples and fungal communities were analyzed using a culture-independent polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) approach. Cultural analyses were also performed in order to identify the viable fungi species present in selected samples. Fungal diversity, reported as the number of operational taxonomic units (OTU), varied between 9 and 56 OTU. This analysis of viable fungi showed that Aspergillus was the most abundant genus, followed by Penicillium, Mucor, and Rhizomucor. Trichoderma, Chrysosporium, Fusarium, Rhizopus, and Stachybotrys were found in a limited number of houses. Our results demonstrated that dust is, in fact, home for a diverse and heterogeneous fungal community and that some of the species found are known allergic agents with severe negative impacts on human health.

One environmental concern related to hospital effluents is discharge of them without preliminary treatment. Antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation (PDI) may represent an alternative to the traditional expensive, unsafe and not always effective disinfection methods. The main goal of this work was to assess the efficiency of PDI on clinical multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in hospital wastewaters in order to evaluate its potential use in treating hospital effluents. The efficiency of PDI was assessed using a cationic porphyrin as the photosensitizer (PS), four MDR bacteria either in phosphate buffered saline or in filtrated hospital wastewaters. The synergistic effect of PDI and antibiotics (ampicillin and chloramphenicol) was also evaluated, as well as the effect of the surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The results show the efficient inactivation of MDR bacteria in PBS (reduction of 6–8 log after 270 min of irradiation at 40 W m⁻² with 5.0 μM of PS). In wastewater, the inactivation of the four MDR bacteria was again efficient and the decrease in bacterial survival starts even sooner. A faster decrease in bacterial survival occurred when PDI was combined with the addition of antibiotics, at sub-inhibitory and inhibitory concentrations, but the SDS did not affect the PDI efficiency. It can be concluded that PDI has potential to be an effective alternative for the inactivation of MDR bacteria in hospital wastewaters and that the presence of antibiotics may enhance its effectiveness.