*Corresponding author: Somasri Dam Department of Microbiology, University of Burdwan, Burdwan – 713104, West Bengal, India ISSN: 0976-3031 RESEARCH ARTICLE ENVIRONMENT: A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF DRUG RESISTANT BACTERIA IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF KOLKATA, INDIA Kumkum Bhattacharyya 1 , Nilay Chatterjee 2 , Saurabh Laskar 3 , Mallika Sengupta 4 , Anjan Adhikari 5 and Somasri Dam 2* 1 Department of Microbiology, Murshidabad Medical College, Murshidabad-742101, West Bengal, India. 2 Department of Microbiology, University of Burdwan, Burdwan – 713104, West Bengal, India 3, Department of Microbiology, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata-700004, West Bengal, India 4 Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata-700004, West Bengal, India 5 Department of Pharmacology, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata – 700004, West Bengal, India ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: Received 14 th , April, 2015 Received in revised form 23 th , April, 2015 Accepted 13 th , May, 2015 Published online 28 th , May, 2015 Background: Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are the major cause of morbidity and mortality and neonates are most susceptible to these infections. Aim: This study was aimed to evaluate the presence of pathogenic bacteria along with their antibiogram from hospital environment namely labour room complex and baby nursery, as these areas are the potential source from where infections can be transmitted to neonates. Materials and Method: 104 samples, collected from different areas of labour room complex and baby nursery were processed for isolation, identification and evaluation of antibiotic resistance pattern. Results: Out of 104 samples, 72 (69.2%) samples were positive for bacterial isolates. The most predominant pathogens isolated were Enterococci (48.05%) and Staphylococcus aureus (31.7%). Enterococci were mostly resistant to Vancomycin while Staphylococcus aureus isolated were mostly resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics. Conclusion: Hospital environment is a potent viable source of antibiotic resistant bacteria causing spread of infection. Key words: Hospital-environment, Hospital- acquired infections, Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci Copyright © Somasri Dam et al., This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. INTRODUCTION Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) with multidrug-resistant pathogens represent a major problem in patients (Singh et al, 2006). Despite the advent of newer antimicrobial therapy and advances in supportive care, HAI is a serious problem in the developing countries (Pradhan et al, 2012). However, the global burden remains unknown because of the difficulty to gather reliable data and inappropriate standard of HAI surveillance system mostly in developing countries. In one-day prevalence surveys recently carried out in single hospitals in Albania, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Republic of Tanzania, HAI prevalence rates varied between 5.7% to 19.1%. In Latvia 5.7%, Lebanon 6.8%, Thailand 7.3%, Turkey 13.4%, Malaysia 13.9%, Brazil 14%, Morocco, Tunisia 17.8%, Albania 19.1% with the pooled prevalence of 10.1% (Ryan Du Bosar, 2011). Transmission of HAI requires three elements; a source of infecting organism, a susceptible host and a mode of transmission (Amy S. Collins, 2008). Hospital environment is proved to be a source of outbreaks of infection in the hospital (Boyce et al, 2007 and Mario et al, 2013). Neonates, especially premature and very low birth weight babies are the most susceptible host in the hospital. Worldwide five million neonatal deaths occur per year and out of them 98% occur in developing countries and HAI are responsible for 4% to 56% of all causes of death in the neonatal period with 75% occurring in south-east Asia and sub Saharan Africa (The Burden of HCAI Worldwide A Summary, 2010). Intensive care unit (ICU) especially neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is one of the most infection prone areas of the hospital (Chandrashekhar et al, 1997). Infection is an important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide. An increasing proportion of infection has being acquired in the nursery where poor neonates start their lives in an intensive care (Gupta et al, 1991). Role of contaminated environment as a potential reservoir of nosocomial pathogen should not be overlooked (Douglas et al, 2009). Drug resistant pathogens are emerging as a major threat for contamination of hospital environment and neonates are particularly vulnerable to be colonized with virulent antibiotic resistant bacteria because their mucosal surfaces do not have Available Online at http://www.recentscientific.com International Journal of Recent Scientific Research International Journal of Recent Scientific Research Vol. 6, Issue, 5, pp.4162-4166, May, 2015