Microbial Contamination in Hospital Environment Has the Potential to Colonize Preterm Newborns’ Nasal Cavities

Abstract

Infants born before 28 weeks are at risk of contracting healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which could be caused by pathogens residing on contaminated hospital surfaces. In this longitudinal study, we characterized by NGS the bacterial composition of nasal swabs of preterm newborns, at the time of birth and after admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), comparing it with that of the environmental wards at the time of delivery and during the hospitalization. We characterized the resistome on the samples too. The results showed that environmental microorganisms responsible for HAIs, in particular Staphylococcus spp., Streptococcus spp., Escherichia-Shigella spp., and K. pneumoniae, were detected in higher percentages in the noses of the babies after 13 days of hospitalization, in terms of the number of colonized patients, microorganism amount, and relative abundance. The analysis of nasal bacteria resistome evidenced the absence of resistance genes at the time of birth, some of which appeared and increased after the admission in the NICU. These data suggest that hospital surface microbiota might be transported to respiratory mucosae or other profound tissues. Our study highlights the importance of a screening that allows characterizing the microbial profile of the environment to assess the risk of colonization of the newborn.

Introduction of Probiotic-Based Sanitation in the Emergency Ward of a Children’s Hospital During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…21 HAI incidence is particularly high in pediatric wards, due to the high susceptibility of children to infections. 22 Premature babies are particularly exposed to the risk of contracting uncommon and rare HAIs, 23 and we recently reported colonization of preterm newborns by environmental Intensive Care Unit (ICU)-resistant microbes, 24 supporting the significant potential contribution of environmental hospital microbes in children with HAIs.…”

“…Briefly, duplicate samples were collected from surfaces and incubated anaerobically ( Clostridium medium) or aerobically (all the remaining media) for 24–48 h (bacteria), or at 25 °C for 72 h (mycetes). 24 , 32 At the end of incubation, colony-forming units (CFU) were counted, and S. aureus identification was performed on Baird–Parker medium and confirmed by API Staph (bioMerieux, Inc, Durham, NC, USA), as previously described. 7 …”

A Metatranscriptomics Survey of Microbial Diversity on Surfaces Post-Intervention of cleanSURFACES® Technology in an Intensive Care Unit

“…For instance, Staphylococcus spp., and Streptococcus spp. have been detected in the noses of babies after NICU hospitalization using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing (Cason et al, 2021). Including the study by Cason et al, findings from recent studies suggest that environmental hospital surface contamination (i.e.…”

“…Staphylococcus spp.) can greatly contribute to the transmission of nosocomial pathogens and the occurrence of HAIs (Suleyman et al, 2018;Cason et al, 2021). While this study reports on the microbial community composition of active microbes from ICU surfaces Pre and Post cleanSURFACES ® intervention, more work is required to assess the potential impact of cleanSURFACES ® on the transmission of nosocomial pathogens and HAI occurrence.…”

Molecular Diagnosis, Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles and Disease Patterns of Gram-Positive Pathogens Recovered from Clinical Infections in Major Ha’il Hospitals

“…Vertical molecular studies have provided more insights into CoNS infections and the routes of their acquisitions. The next generation sequencing (NGS) and quantitative-PCR (qPCR) microarray analyses confirmed the impact of the hospital environment microbiome on S. aureus and S. epidermidis nasal colonization rates [22]. Moreover, studies on isolates from 96 institutions in 24 countries identified the global emergence of multidrug-resistant, hospital-adapted lineages of S. epidermidis (two ST2 and one ST23).…”