BackgroundAccording to the presence of the weak, diabetic and immunosuppressive patients in hospitals, hospital foods should have a high quality and safety. Cooking a lot of foods higher than daily requirement, storage of cooked foods in an inappropriate condition and presence of nurses and servants in distribution of food to patients are the main reasons caused contamination of hospital foods. Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli is one of the common cause of food poisoning in hospitals. The present research was carried out to study the distribution of virulence factors, O-serogroups and antibiotic resistance properties in STEC strains recovered from Iranian hospital food samples.MethodsFive-hundred and eighty raw and cooked food samples were collected and immediately transferred to the laboratory. E. coli-positive strains were subjected to PCR and disk diffusion method.ResultsThirty-nine out of 580 (6.72%) hospital food samples were contaminated with E. coli. Raw (20%) and cooked meat (6%) were the most commonly contaminated samples. Raw samples had the higher prevalence of E. coli (P <0.01). Samples which were collected in the summer season had the highest prevalence of bacteria (64.10%). Significant difference was seen between the prevalence of EHEC and AEEC subtypes (P <0.01). The most commonly detected virulence factors in both EHEC and AEEC subtypes were stx1 and eae. The most commonly detected serogroups were O26 (43.75%) and O157 (25%) and there were no positive results for O103, O145, O91, O113 and O128 serogroups. Aac (3)-IV (100%), CITM (100%) and tetA (62.50%) were the most commonly detected antibiotic resistance genes. STEC strains harbored the highest levels of resistance against ampicillin (93.75%), gentamycin (93.75%), tetracycline (87.50%) and ciprofloxacin (81.25%). All of the STEC strains were resistant to at least 3 antibiotics, while the prevalence of resistance against more than 12 antibiotics were 12.50%.ConclusionsHigh presence of O157 serogroups, EHEC strains and animal-based antibiotics in cooked foods showed insufficiency of cooking time and temperature in the kitchens of hospitals. Judicious prescription of antibiotics and attentions to the principles of food safety can reduce the risk of resistant and virulent strains of STEC in hospital foods.

From a clinical and epidemiological perspective, it is important to know which genotypes and antibiotic resistance patterns are present in H. pylori strains isolated from salads and vegetables. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to find this purpose. Three hundred eighty washed and unwashed vegetable samples and fifty commercial and traditional salad samples were collected from Isfahan, Iran. Samples were cultured and those found positive for H. pylori were analyzed using PCR. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using disk diffusion method. Seven out of 50 (14%) salad and 52 out of 380 (13.68%) vegetable samples harbored H. pylori. In addition, leek, lettuce, and cabbage were the most commonly contaminated samples (30%). The most prevalent virulence genes were oipA (86.44%) and cagA (57.625). VacA s1a (37.28%) and iceA1 (47.45%) were the most prevalent genotypes. Forty different genotypic combinations were recognized. S1a/cagA+/iceA1/oipA+ (33.89%), s1a/cagA+/iceA2/oipA (30.50%), and m1a/cagA+/iceA1/oipA+ (28.81%) were the most prevalent combined genotypes. Bacterial strains had the highest levels of resistance against metronidazole (77.96%), amoxicillin (67.79%), and ampicillin (61.01%). High similarity in the genotyping pattern of H. pylori among vegetable and salad samples and human specimens suggests that vegetable and salads may be the sources of the bacteria.