Potential Exposure to Respiratory and Enteric Bacterial Pathogens among Wastewater Treatment Plant Workers, South Africa

Abstract

Wastewater handling has been associated with an increased risk of developing adverse health effects, including respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. However, there is a paucity of information in the literature, and occupational health risks are not well quantified. Grab influent samples were analysed using Illumina Miseq 16S amplicon sequencing to assess potential worker exposure to bacterial pathogens occurring in five municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The most predominant phyla were Bacteroidota, Campilobacterota, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Desulfobacterota, accounting for 85.4% of the total bacterial community. Taxonomic analysis showed a relatively low diversity of bacterial composition of the predominant genera across all WWTPs, indicating a high degree of bacterial community stability in the influent source. Pathogenic bacterial genera of human health concern included Mycobacterium, Coxiella, Escherichia/Shigella, Arcobacter, Acinetobacter, Streptococcus, Treponema, and Aeromonas. Furthermore, WHO-listed inherently resistant opportunistic bacterial genera were identified. These results suggest that WWTP workers may be occupationally exposed to several bacterial genera classified as hazardous biological agents for humans. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive risk assessments to ascertain the actual risks and health outcomes among WWTP workers and inform effective intervention strategies to reduce worker exposure.

The presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria at four Norwegian wastewater treatment plants: seasonal and wastewater-source effects

“…Most of the fusobacteria detected in this study were determined to be composed of the pathogen Leptotrichia, which occurs in the human oral cavity, among other biomes (Eribe and Olsen, 2017). Quite recently, Leptotrichia has also been found in WWTPs in Finland and South Africa (Leiviskä and Risteelä, 2022;Poopedi et al, 2023). As the Leptotrichia genus can be involved in opportunistic infections through blood or oral transmission (Eribe and Olsen, 2017) and may be a reservoir for ARGs, it is therefore important for public health.…”

SARS-CoV-2 virus in Raw Wastewater from Student Residence Halls with concomitant 16S rRNA Bacterial Community Structure changes

“…Among the top 50 genera, 14 genera (33.52%) were identified as potential pathogens, including Bacteroides, Arcobacter, Treponema, Aeromonas, Acinetobacter, Prevotella, Pseudomonas, Erysipelothrix, Faecalibacterium, Flavobacterium, Ruminococcus, Bifidobacterium, Laribacter, and Streptococcus (Cai and Zhang 2013, Cai et al 2014, Do et al 2019, Oluseyi Osunmakinde et al 2019, Poopedi et al 2023).…”