Prevalence and characterisation of non-cholerae Vibrio spp. in final effluents of wastewater treatment facilities in two districts of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa: implications for public health

Vibrios and other enteric pathogens can be found in wastewater effluents of a healthy population. We assessed the prevalence of three non-cholerae vibrios in wastewater effluents of 14 wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in Chris Hani and Amathole district municipalities in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa for a period of 12 months. With the exception of WWTP10 where presumptive vibrios were not detected in summer and spring, presumptive vibrios were detected in all seasons in other WWTP effluents. When a sample of 1,000 presumptive Vibrio isolates taken from across all sampling sites were subjected to molecular confirmation for Vibrio, 668 were confirmed to belong to the genus Vibrio, giving a prevalence rate of 66.8 %. Further, molecular characterisation of 300 confirmed Vibrio isolates revealed that 11.6 % (35) were Vibrio parahaemolyticus, 28.6 % (86) were Vibrio fluvialis and 28 % (84) were Vibrio vulnificus while 31.8 % (95) belonged to other Vibrio spp. not assayed for in this study. Antibiogram profiling of the three Vibrio species showed that V. parahaemolyticus was ≥50 % susceptible to 8 of the test antibiotics and ≥50 % resistant to only 5 of the 13 test antibiotics, while V. vulnificus showed a susceptibility profile of ≥50 % to 7 of the test antibiotics and a resistance profile of ≥50 % to 6 of the 13 test antibiotics. V. fluvialis showed ≥50 % resistance to 8 of the 13 antibiotics used while showing ≥50 % susceptibility to only 4 antibiotics used. All three Vibrio species were susceptible to gentamycin, cefuroxime, meropenem and imipenem. Multiple antibiotic resistance patterns were also evident especially against such antibiotics as tetracyclin, polymixin B, penicillin G, sulfamethazole and erythromycin against which all Vibrio species were resistant. These results indicate a significant threat to public health, more so in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa which is characterised by widespread poverty, with more than a third of the population directly relying on surface water sources for drinking and daily use.