Antibiotics in Wastewater of a Rural and an Urban Hospital before and after Wastewater Treatment, and the Relationship with Antibiotic Use—A One Year Study from Vietnam

La Thi Quynh Lien, Nguyen Quynh Hoa, Nguyen Thi Kim Chuc, Nguyen Thi Minh Thoa, Ho Dang Phuc, Vishal Diwan, Nguyen Thanh Dat, Ashok J. Tamhankar and Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg
Additional contact information
La Thi Quynh Lien: Global Health—Health Systems and Policy (HSP), Medicines, Focusing Antibiotics, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18 A, Stockholm 17177, Sweden
Nguyen Quynh Hoa: Department of Pharmacy, National Cancer Hospital, 30 Cau Buou, Thanh Tri District, Hanoi, Vietnam
Nguyen Thi Kim Chuc: Department of Family Medicine, Hanoi Medical University, 01 Ton That Tung, Dong Da District, Hanoi, Vietnam
Nguyen Thi Minh Thoa: Department of Family Medicine, Hanoi Medical University, 01 Ton That Tung, Dong Da District, Hanoi, Vietnam
Ho Dang Phuc: Institute of Mathematics-VAST, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam
Vishal Diwan: Global Health—Health Systems and Policy (HSP), Medicines, Focusing Antibiotics, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18 A, Stockholm 17177, Sweden
Nguyen Thanh Dat: Hanoi Drug and Cosmetic Testing Centre, 7/107 Nguyen Chi Thanh, Dong Da district, Hanoi, Vietnam
Ashok J. Tamhankar: Global Health—Health Systems and Policy (HSP), Medicines, Focusing Antibiotics, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18 A, Stockholm 17177, Sweden
Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg: Global Health—Health Systems and Policy (HSP), Medicines, Focusing Antibiotics, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18 A, Stockholm 17177, Sweden

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Hospital effluents represent an important source for the release of antibiotics and antibiotic resistant bacteria into the environment. This study aims to determine concentrations of various antibiotics in wastewater before and after wastewater treatment in a rural hospital (60 km from the center of Hanoi) and in an urban hospital (in the center of Hanoi) in Vietnam, and it aims to explore the relationship between antibiotic concentrations in wastewater before wastewater treatment and quantities of antibiotics used in the rural hospital, over a period of one year in 2013. Water samples were collected using continuous sampling for 24 h in the last week of every month. The data on quantities of antibiotics delivered to all inpatient wards were collected from the Pharmacy department in the rural hospital. Solid-phase extraction and high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry were used for chemical analysis. Significant concentrations of antibiotics were present in the wastewater both before and after wastewater treatment of both the rural and the urban hospital. Ciprofloxacin was detected at the highest concentrations in the rural hospital’s wastewater (before treatment: mean = 42.8 µg/L; after treatment: mean = 21.5 µg/L). Metronidazole was detected at the highest concentrations in the urban hospital’s wastewater (before treatment: mean = 36.5 µg/L; after treatment: mean = 14.8 µg/L). A significant correlation between antibiotic concentrations in wastewater before treatment and quantities of antibiotics used in the rural hospital was found for ciprofloxacin ( r = 0.78; p = 0.01) and metronidazole ( r = 0.99; p < 0.001).

Keywords: antibiotic residues; hospital wastewater; ciprofloxacin; metronidazole (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/588/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/588/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:6:p:588-:d:71913

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().