Detection and Characterization of Carbapenemase-Producing and from Hospital Effluents of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Hospital wastewater is a recognized reservoir for resistant Gram-negative bacteria. This study aimed to screen for carbapenemase-producing and and their resistance determinants in two hospital effluents of Ouagadougou. Carbapenem-resistant and were selectively isolated from wastewater collected from two public hospitals in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Bacterial species were identified via MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Carbapenemase production was studied phenotypically using antibiotic susceptibility testing via the disk diffusion method. The presence of carbapenemases was further characterized by PCR. A total of 14 . (13.59%) and 19 . (17.92%) carbapenemase-producing isolates were identified with different distributions. They were, respectively, (71.43%), (42.86%), (28.57%), (14.29%), (14.29%); and (68.42%), (68.42%), (10.53%), (10.53%), and (5.26%). In addition, eight (57.14%) . and eleven (57.89%) . isolates exhibited more than one carbapenemase, KPC and NDM being the most prevalent combination. Our results highlight the presence of clinically relevant carbapenemase-producing isolates in hospital effluents, suggesting their presence also in hospitals. Their spread into the environment via hospital effluents calls for intensive antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance.