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. 2024 Jul 29;13(8):711.
doi: 10.3390/antibiotics13080711.

On-Site Inactivation for Disinfection of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Hospital Effluent by UV and UV-LED

Takashi Azuma  1 , Masaru Usui  2 , Tomohiro Hasei  1 , Tetsuya Hayashi  1
Affiliations

On-Site Inactivation for Disinfection of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Hospital Effluent by UV and UV-LED

Takashi Azuma et al. Antibiotics (Basel). .

Abstract

The problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is not limited to the medical field but is also becoming prevalent on a global scale in the environmental field. Environmental water pollution caused by the discharge of wastewater into aquatic environments has caused concern in the context of the sustainable development of modern society. However, there have been few studies focused on the treatment of hospital wastewater, and the potential consequences of this remain unknown. This study evaluated the efficacy of the inactivation of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (AMRB) and antimicrobial resistance genes (AMRGs) in model wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) wastewater and hospital effluent based on direct ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation provided by a conventional mercury lamp with a peak wavelength of 254 nm and an ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV-LED) with a peak emission of 280 nm under test conditions in which the irradiance of both was adjusted to the same intensity. The overall results indicated that both UV- and UV-LED-mediated disinfection effectively inactivated the AMRB in both wastewater types (>99.9% after 1-3 min of UV and 3 min of UV-LED treatment). Additionally, AMRGs were also removed (0.2-1.4 log10 for UV 254 nm and 0.1-1.3 log10 for UV 280 nm), and notably, there was no statistically significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the AMRGs between the UV and UV-LED treatments. The results of this study highlight the importance of utilizing a local inactivation treatment directly for wastewater generated by a hospital prior to its flow into a WWTP as sewage. Although additional disinfection treatment at the WWTP is likely necessary to remove the entire quantity of AMRB and AMRGs, the present study contributes to a significant reduction in the loads of WWTP and urgent prevention of the spread of infectious diseases, thus alleviating the potential threat to the environment and human health risks associated with AMR problems.

Keywords: UV lamp; antimicrobial resistance genes (AMRGs); antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (AMRB); disinfection; hospital wastewater; river environment; ultraviolet-light emitting diode (UV-LED); wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).

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Conflict of interest statement

The funding agencies had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relative antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (AMRB) and antimicrobial-susceptible bacteria (AMSB) under UV and UV-LED treatment of WWTP wastewater: (a-1) UV for A MRB, (a-2) UV for AMSB, (b-1) UV-LED for AMRB, and (b-2) UV-LED for AMSB (C0, initial bacterial count; C, bacterial count after treatment; CRE, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales; ESBL-E, extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales; MDRA, multi-drug-resistant Acinetobacter; MDRP, multi-drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa; MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, VRE, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative antimicrobial-resistant bacteria (AMRB) and antimicrobial-susceptible bacteria (AMSB) under UV and UV-LED treatment of hospital effluent: (a-1) UV for AMRB, (a-2) UV for AMSB, (b-1) UV-LED for AMRB, and (b-2) UV-LED for AMSB (C0, initial bacterial counts; C, bacterial counts after treatment).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Detected numbers of CRE and ESBL-E as AMRGs in WWTP wastewater (a) and the hospital effluent (b). (AMRGs: antimicrobial-resistance genes).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Relative resistome profiles of CRE and ESBL-E as AMRGs in the WWTP wastewater (a) and the hospital effluent (b). (AMRGs: antimicrobial-resistance genes).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Taxonomic diversity of bacterial communities in the direct UV and UV-LED treated wastewater samples. ((a) WWTP wastewater and (b) hospital effluent).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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