Kawamura T, Prah I, Mahazu S, Ablordey A, Saito R. Types A and F
Clostridium perfringens in healthcare wastewater from Ghana.
Appl Environ Microbiol 2023;
89:e0161923. [PMID:
38051072 PMCID:
PMC10734495 DOI:
10.1128/aem.01619-23]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/07/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE
Clostridium perfringens causes gas gangrene and food poisoning in humans, and monitoring this bacterium is important for public health. Although whole-genome sequencing is useful to comprehensively understand the virulence, resistome, and global genetic relatedness of bacteria, limited genomic data from environmental sources and developing countries hamper our understanding of the richness of the intrinsic genomic diversity of this pathogen. Here, we successfully accumulated the genetic data on C. perfringens strains isolated from hospital effluent and provided the first evidence that predicted pathogenic C. perfringens may be disseminated in the clinical environment in Ghana. Our findings suggest the importance of risk assessment in the environment as well as the clinical setting to mitigate the potential outbreak of C. perfringens food poisoning in Ghana.
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