4.0DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONThescarcity of water is a worldwide issue and it’s as a result of physical andeconomical constraint in certain regions like middle east, Africa, as well aswestern states of America (Jimenez 2008). Therefore to conserve our water andto avoid this scarcity we have to reuse the water again after treatment. Thepurpose of wastewater treatment plants are to safeguard the kind of waterentering into the environment and to conserve water resources. Theeffluent from wastewater treatment plants is either released into receivingwatersheds or reused in the agricultural and industrial sectors, such asagricultural irrigation, groundwater recharge, etc. Owing to the hugevolumetric amount of treated wastewater, the transport and fate of pathogenicmicroorganisms from treated wastewater in subsurface and groundwater haveattracted extensive concern over the past 2 decades (Gruau G, Kryak DD. et al2005).
However a large number of staphylococci are present in the waste water evenantibiotic resistant staphylococci (Schwartz et al., 2003; Börjessonet al.,2009; Goldstein et al., 2012; Mogeset al., 2014).
Staphylococcus aureusis and commonly found in the skin and the nails of humans and various animalspecies; however, it may also act as an opportunistic pathogen that causesminor to severe infections due to the production of different virulencefactors. Nowadays, methicillin-resistant S.aureus (MRSA) is one of the most important threats to human and animalhealth worldwide (Cunyet al. 2015). Since these bacteriacan be aerosolized from water and are capable of colonizing skin and softtissues, exposure through inhalation is of concern, particularly among workersat wastewater treatment plants who come in contact with the reclaimed water. InObafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, wastewater effluent are collectedand passed through various treatment processes before being released for reuseby the university community.
Atotal of 25 isolates of staphylococcus was obtained from collection of 4wastewater samples but only 18 of isolates were tested with antibiotics. Allthe isolates were catalase positive except one and all were also gram positive,all wereDnase negative(100%). All the isolates were both susceptible tocefoxitin and Ciprofloxacin(100%), 13 of them were susceptible totetracycline(72.2%) while 2 of them were resistant to chloramphenicol (11.1%),2 and 1 of them were intermediate to clindamycin(11.1%) and rifampin(5.6%)respectively while 6 of them were resistant to erythromycin(33.3%).
Thisresults show a slight variance to a similar study by Mogeset al. (2014) carried out in Ethiopia. The slight differences canbe attributed to the differences in the use of various antibiotics in Nigeriaand Ethiopia. The high susceptibility of the organisms to ciprofloxacin may beas a result of low circulation of the drug. Some of the organisms are resistantto four antibiotics including tetracycline, chloramphenicol, clindamycin, anderythromycin. As indicated by Abulreesh (2011), multidrug resistantstaphylococci (S.
aureus andcoagulase negative staphylococci) have been a common problem and recovered fromdiverse environmental sources, such as drinking water supplies, foodstuffs, themucosa of humans and farm animals and hospital environments which can beimportant public health concern.Thereforethe presence of antibiotic resistant staphylococci should not be overlooked asthey will pose threat and danger to the students and well being of the workersof wastewater treatment plant as well as individual who are susceptible toinfections. Therefore, improved wastewater treatment plant practices should beestablished and improved sanitary measures should be practiced.
Also furtherresearch should be carried out to provide good and enough information to allowfor the assessment of the extent of microbial risk associated with usingreclaimed water
