Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry used to assess antibiotics in hospital run-off

Run-off water from hospitals in India has been analysed using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) in an attempt to determine whether the presence of antibiotics could be leading to resistance among bacteria.

The study is published in BMC Public Health and was conducted by a team including representatives of the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, a non-profit and self-supporting scientific foundation.

Using LC-MS-MS, the scientists found that some antibiotics were present in greater concentrations in hospital run-off water than in the general water supply in India.

However, it was unclear whether this could have a resultant negative health impact in terms of increasing the likelihood of bacterial resistance to treatments.

For instance, E.coli found to be present in the wastewater studied was immune to amikacin, but the antibiotic was not at raised levels in the same samples.

An antibiotic that was found in greater quantities than the general supply - ciproflaxin - did not appear to have caused resistance in the E.coli bacteria found.