Fontana Renato, Wetler Rita M da C, Aquino Renata S S, Andrioli João L, Queiroz Guilherme R G, Ferreira Sônia L, Nascimento Ivan C do, Delabie Jacques H C
Depto de Ciências Biológicas, Univ Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, BA, Brasil, 45662-000.
Neotrop Entomol. 2010 Jul-Aug;39(4):655-63. doi: 10.1590/s1519-566x2010000400029.
Nosocomial infections bring a high risk to the health of hospital patients and employees. Ants are common organisms in Brazilian hospitals, where they can act as dispersers of opportunistic microorganisms in places they forage. The occurrence of multi-resistant bacteria carried by ants was analyzed in two public hospitals (HA and HB) in southeastern Bahia, Brazil. In these two hospitals 132 workers belonging to three ant species were collected. The bacteria associated to these ants were identified and their susceptibility to antibiotics was evaluated. More than half (57.3%) of ants collected in HA were associated with some kind of bacteria, with 26.7% of them being opportunist bacteria, while 84,2% of the ants from HB presented associated bacteria growth, with 61.4% of them being opportunist bacteria. Twenty four species of bacteria were isolated. The Gram-positive bacilli of the genus Bacillus were the most frequent, followed by the Gram-positive cocci, Gram-negative bacilli (family Enterobacteriaceae) and Gram-negative non-fermenters bacilli. The profile of sensitivity of the bacterial isolates to drugs pointed out the existence of multi-resistant isolates carried by ants. For the first time, are reported cases of the same bacterial resistant isolates taken form homospecific ant workers that point out the importance of ants to bacteria dissemination and proliferation in a hospital. Our results suggest that the risk of contamination presented by these ants is similar to the one of any other mechanical vector of bacterial dissemination.
医院感染给医院患者和工作人员的健康带来了高风险。蚂蚁是巴西医院中的常见生物，它们在觅食的地方可充当机会性微生物的传播者。对巴西巴伊亚州东南部两家公立医院（HA和HB）中蚂蚁携带的多重耐药细菌的发生情况进行了分析。在这两家医院收集了属于三种蚂蚁种类的132只工蚁。鉴定了与这些蚂蚁相关的细菌，并评估了它们对抗生素的敏感性。在HA收集的蚂蚁中，超过一半（57.3%）与某种细菌有关，其中26.7%为机会性细菌，而来自HB的蚂蚁中有84.2%出现了相关细菌生长，其中61.4%为机会性细菌。分离出了24种细菌。芽孢杆菌属的革兰氏阳性杆菌最为常见，其次是革兰氏阳性球菌、革兰氏阴性杆菌（肠杆菌科）和革兰氏阴性非发酵杆菌。细菌分离株对药物的敏感性分析表明，蚂蚁携带了多重耐药分离株。首次报道了从同种蚂蚁工蚁中分离出相同细菌耐药株的病例，这指出了蚂蚁在医院细菌传播和扩散中的重要性。我们的结果表明，这些蚂蚁带来的污染风险与任何其他细菌传播的机械载体的风险相似。
