Isolation of Klebsiella pneumoniae from water and hand swabs of vegetable vendors collected from the wet markets of Dhaka city

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) is considered one of the major causes of human hospital infections which is found in human intestine. This bacterium belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family, and this is a gram-negative, encapsulate and non-motile bacterium. K. pneumoniae can be potential health hazard through increasing the antibiotic resistance. Virulence factors of K. pneumoniae allows higher adaptation to stress and can survive even after food processing. Vegetables are at higher risk of contamination because of poor sanitization procedures. Especially, water which is used to wash raw vegetables and vendor’s personal hygiene can be the reason of contamination. This study was anticipated to investigate the possible source of K. pneumoniae from water sample and hand swabs of the vendor from wet market as well as to know the antibiotic-resistant K. pneumoniae from those samples. From 7 areas, total 32 samples were collected (water & hand swab) where 27 samples (87.5%) gave positive results for K. pneumoniae. Antimicrobial resistance was examined for Ampicillin (100%), Erythromycin (100%), and Imipenem (100%). While high susceptibility was observed to Nalidixic acid (100%), Gentamicin (92%), Amikacin (92%), Meropenem (95%), Ciprofloxacin (91%), Amikacin (87%), Colistin (87%), and Tetracycline (74%). Ciprofloxacin (88.8%), Ceftriaxone (88.8%), Tetracycline (74%), Meropenem (70.37%), Tigecycline (51.85%) and Nitrofurantoin (35%). Among this, 3.7 % is Extensive Drug Resistance (XDR) and no Pan drug Resistance (PDR) strains were found. This study shows that water and hand samples contain some antibiotic-resistant K. pneumoniae. So, Therefore, the source of water and vendors themselves can be the possible transmission route for the vegetable consumers. Moreover, as some isolates were antibiotic-resistant hence it is a matter of concern. Therefore, proper sanitization and clean water should be ensured to prevent contamination with K. pneumoniae.