What is it about?
Escherichia coli is an important human pathogen that can cause diarrhoeal and other infections. In this study, we collected water from the sewer of a referral hospital and isolated various types of pathogenic E. coli. We then sought to find out if the E. coli recovered from the hospital sewer mains could still infect human cells. We tested three different types of E. coli against a human cell line and concluded that the bacteria were infective.
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Why is it important?
Our study showed that hospital wastewater has bacteria that retain the ability to infect mammalian cells. This is of concern as the bacteria may end up in a water environment used by animals and people.
Perspectives
This article was great to work on because it was my first exposure to working with human cell lines. We also got to collaborate with someone with great expertise in that area. I hope the article will trigger more related work that marries microbiology and cytology.
Joshua Mbanga
National University of Science and Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Antibiotic resistance, pathotypes, and pathogen-host interactions in Escherichia coli from hospital wastewater in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, PLoS ONE, March 2023, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282273.
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