Effects of KMnO4 amounts on antibacterial properties of activated carbon for efficient treatment of northern Benin hospital wastewater in a fixed bed column system

In this study, the wastewater from the Departmental Hospital Center of Atacora in Benin was characterized and then treated with activated carbon/potassium permanganate (AC/KMnO₄) composite in a fixed bed column system. The AC/KMnO₄ composites with impregnation ratios range 0.025-0.100 were prepared from peanut shell activated carbon and potassium permanganate. The wastewater characteristics revealed that 75% of Escherichia coli strains identified were extended-spectrum lactamases (ESBL) with CTX-M dominance, while 25% of Staphylococcus aureus strains produced Panton and Valentine leucocidin and 77.80% of Salmonella typhi strains were resistant to Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole. The fixed bed column system results showed removal efficiency of 72.18 ± 4.98% turbidity, 63.12 ± 4.11% COD, 0.70 ± 0.04 log₁₀ against E. coli and 3.82 ± 0.01 log₁₀ against S. typhi strains using activated carbon as adsorbent with 0.7 cm bed depth after 3 h of treatment. The composite adsorbent AC/KMnO₄ significantly increased the effectiveness of treatment due to the strong oxidant power of KMnO₄ in the composite material. The results depicted a removal rate of 83.88 ± 5.00%, 89 ± 1.95%, 90 ± 0.65% turbidity, 66.47 ± 1.62%, 69.82 ± 2.00%, 78.20 ± 2.82% COD, 2.0 ± 0.08 log₁₀, 5.0 ± 0.07 log₁₀ against E. coli and 3.82 ± 0.01 log₁₀ against S. typhi strains using AC/KMnO₄ with 0.025, 0.050 and 0.100 ratios respectively at 0.7 cm bed depth. Finally, AC/KMnO₄ revealed more adsorption potential and antibacterial property than AC, hence, the composite material could be used as a cost-effective adsorbent for efficient removing of multi-resistant bacteria from hospital wastewater.

Hospital environment hygiene nurse: a key player to reduce healthcare associated infections by multi-resistant organisms

Background

Multi-Resistant Organisms (MRO) healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are closely associated with contamination of surfaces. Outsourced companies are usually in charge of both hospital hygiene and environmental hygiene personnel (EHP) supervision, which can result in bias.

Methods

A quasi-experimental study. The intervention was to add the "Hospital Environment Hygiene Nurse" (HEHN). MRO acquired infection rate and MRO acquired colonized rate were calculated, pre and post intervention. Confounding variables: MRO carriage rate upon admission and hospitalisation days median (HDM) were calculated.

Results

Median length of stay: 5 days (p=0.85, interquartile range=6 days). Carriage rate upon admission: 4.3% for pre-intervention vs 5.3% post-intervention, dif. (CI 95%): 1% (-1% to 2.9%) p=0.33. MRO acquired infection rate: 4.3% for pre-intervention vs. 2% post-intervention, Standardized Infection Ratio (SIR) (CI 95%): 0.47 (0.25 to 0.87). MRO acquired colonization rate:10.4% for pre-intervention vs. 7.9% post-intervention, SIR (CI 95%): 0.75 (0.53 to 1.07).

Conclusions

As a reinforcement to standard infection control (IC) measures in place, the incorporation of an exclusive, full-time HEHN was significantly useful to reduce MRO HAI.