Department of Clinical Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013 Jun 13;10(6):2412-26. doi: 10.3390/ijerph10062412.
This study focused on the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a metro system as an example of a public transportation system. The molecular characteristics of Staphylococcus were investigated to discern which strains were isolated from metro stations in Shanghai. These were compared with strains isolated from hospital treatment rooms and parks. Airborne Staphylococcus samples in the metro were resistant to an average of 2.64 antibiotic types, and 58.0% of the strain samples were resistant to at least three antibiotics; this was a significantly higher rate than strains from the park, but was lower than those from hospitals. The presence of two antibiotic resistance genes of Staphylococcus strains, mecA (28.0%) and qac (40.0%), were also found at significantly higher levels in metro samples than park samples, but did not differ significantly from hospital samples. Furthermore, 22.0% of the metro Staphylococcus samples were found to be biofilm-positive. The high rate of antibiotic resistance found in Staphylococcus samples collected from metro stations, and the discovery of antibiotic-resistant genes, indicate that the closed indoor environment and crowded passengers may accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistant strains. More attention should be paid to the inspection and control of antibiotic resistant strains in public transportation systems.
本研究以地铁系统为例，关注了抗生素耐药菌在公共交通系统中的存在。调查了葡萄球菌的分子特征，以辨别从上海地铁站分离出的菌株。将这些菌株与从医院治疗室和公园分离出的菌株进行比较。地铁空气中的葡萄球菌样本平均对 2.64 种抗生素具有耐药性，58.0%的菌株样本对至少三种抗生素具有耐药性；这一比率明显高于公园的菌株，但低于医院的菌株。还发现地铁样本中两种葡萄球菌菌株的抗生素耐药基因 mecA（28.0%）和 qac（40.0%）的存在水平明显高于公园样本，但与医院样本无显著差异。此外，22.0%的地铁葡萄球菌样本呈生物膜阳性。从地铁站采集的葡萄球菌样本中发现的高抗生素耐药率，以及抗生素耐药基因的发现，表明封闭的室内环境和拥挤的乘客可能会加速抗生素耐药菌株的传播。应更加关注公共交通系统中抗生素耐药菌株的检查和控制。
