Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistance Among Clinical Isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolated From a Tertiary Care Hospital in Pakistan

Antibiotic resistance pattern and extended spectrum β-lactamase production was investigated in cultures of forty Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates isolated in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Islamabad Pakistan towards novel cephalosporin (first, second and third generation), floroquinolones, carbapenems, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and lincomycin by disc sensitivity, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Cephalosporin was reported as highly resistant (cephradine 100%, cephalexin 75%, cefeclor 87.5%, ceftriaxone 85%, cefotaxime 82.5%), lincomycin (100%), followed by quinolones (ciprofloxacin 55%, ofloxacin 47.5%, nalidixic acid 42.5%, norfloxacin 35%, moxifloxacin 25%, gatifloxacin 15%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid 12.5%, and carbapenams (imipenem, meropenem) with the least resistance at 7.5%. About 47.5% strains were found to be ESBLs positive among which 15.8% of the strains were producing carbapenamase, 26.5% with inducible cephalosporinase of bush functional gene 2e. No inhibitor resistant TEM-β lactamases (IRT) positive strains were found. High antibiotic resistance rate against commonly used antibiotics is a disadvantage for health care system in countries like Pakistan as it can greatly effect patient management. Therefore physicians must change prescription priorities towards alternative antibiotics to reduce the burden of antibiotics resistance

Application of Aspergillus niger SA1 for the enhanced bioremoval of azo dyes in Simulated Textile Effluent

Biological remediation is always envisaged as cost effective and eco-friendly for the treatment of recalcitrant dyes and effluents. Aspergillus niger SA1, a brown rot fungi, isolated from storage pond of textile wastewater, showed a great mineralizing ability for azo dyes, acid red (AR) 151 and orange (Or) II. Decolorization assays were carried out for 24 h, by taking 100 ml of dye containing Simulated Textile Effluent (STE) with 5 g of freshly grown fungal pellets. Decolorization of AR 151 was well over 95% under different conditions, however, it reduced to 52% when treated with pre-used fungal biomass under shaking condition. In case of Or II, results were 50 and 61% under static while 65 and 85% under shaking condition with fresh and pre-used fungal biomass respectively. Primarily, dyes removal in STE appeared due to biosorption/bioadsorption of the fungal biomass. However, discoloration of dyes onto the biomass with subsequent formation and then decline in their products in STE suggested clearly that dyes were basically metabolically degraded by the fungal strain