Hospital environment as reservoir of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in human cases: a molecular epidemiology investigation in a hospital setting in central Italy.

This article focuses on a molecular epidemiology investigation of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates collected from clinical and environmental sources in a hospital in the Molise region of central Italy. Using genotyping methods including pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR (ERIC-PCR), and random amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR (RAPD-PCR), the study found high genetic heterogeneity among 33 isolates but identified notable genetic relatedness between certain clinical strains from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and environmental strains from sinks and faucets. All isolates exhibited MDR phenotypes, and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of environmental strains correlated with clinical isolates, supporting the role of the hospital environment as a reservoir contributing to patient infections. The findings underscore the importance of molecular typing in understanding transmission routes of P. aeruginosa in healthcare settings and inform targeted infection control measures to reduce hospital-acquired infections.