ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Maqsood Ahmad1 , Amin U. Khan1, Abdul Wahid2, Zahid Ali Butt3, Muhammad Farhan1 and Muhammad Nawaz2
1Sustainable Development Study Centre, G.C. University, Lahore, Pakistan.
2Department of Environmental Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
3Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2014;8(3):2039-2045
© The Author(s). 2014
Received: 15/09/2013 | Accepted: 06/11/2013 | Published: 31/06/2014
Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the occurrence of ciprofloxacin (CIP) and norfloxacin (NOR) in wastewaters of three teaching hospitals of Lahore along with assessment of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the wastewaters. The concentrations of CIP and NOR in the wastewaters of hospitals were ranged from 126.86 to 48.23 µg/L and 50.23 to 7.69 µg/L, respectively. However, the amount of antibiotics present in the municipal wastewater drains before mixing the hospital wastewaters was 2.08 to 1.31 µg/L of CIP and 1.17 to 0.25 µg/L of NOR. In municipal wastewater downstream to the hospitals, concentrations of both antibiotics were increased viz., 2.96 to 1.63 µg/L (CIP), and 1.55 to 0.30 µg/L (NOR). Among the Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolated from hospital wastewaters, 66% were resistant to CIP and 83% were resistant to NOR. In case of Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhi), 83% were resistant to CIP and 66% were resistant to NOR. E. coli isolated from municipal upstream to hospital wastewater were 50% resistant to CIP and NOR.  Isolates of S. typhi were 50% resistant to CIP and 33% resistant to NOR. The results revealed that hospital wastewater are major source of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria in aquatic environment.

Keywords

Hospital wastewater, Ciprofloxacin, Norfloxacin, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium

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