title: Drinking water from dug wells in rural ghana--salmonella contamination, environmental factors, and genotypes.
abstract: Salmonellosis is an important but neglected disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Food or fecal-oral associated transmissions are the primary cause of infections, while the role of waterborne transmission is unclear. Samples were collected from different dug wells in a rural area of Ghana and analyzed for contamination with bacteria, and with Salmonella in particular. In addition, temporal dynamics and riks factors for contamination were investigated in 16 wells. For all Salmonella isolates antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed, serovars were determined and strains from the same well with the same serovar were genotyped. The frequency of well water contamination with Gram-negative rod-shaped bacteria was 99.2% (n = 395). Out of 398 samples, 26 (6.5%) tested positive for Salmonella spp. The serovar distribution was diverse including strains not commonly isolated from clinical samples. Resistance to locally applied antibiotics or resistance to fluoroquinolones was not seen in the Salmonella isolates. The risk of Salmonella contamination was lower in wells surrounded by a frame and higher during the rainy season. The study confirms the overall poor microbiological quality of well water in a resource-poor area of Ghana. Well contamination with Salmonella poses a potential threat of infection, thus highlighting the important role of drinking water safety in infectious disease control.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. dekker@bnitm.de.
authors.forename: Denise Myriam
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Dekker
authors.affiliation: Research Group Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. krumkamp@bnitm.de.|German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Hamburg-Borstel-Lübeck, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. krumkamp@bnitm.de.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Krumkamp
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, Kumasi, Ghana. nimakosarpong@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Nimako
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sarpong
authors.affiliation: Department of Tropical Medicine, German Armed Forces Hospital of Hamburg, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. frickmann@bnitm.de.|Institute for Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, University Hospital Rostock, Schillingallee 70, Rostock 18057, Germany. frickmann@bnitm.de.
authors.forename: Hagen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Frickmann
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, Kumasi, Ghana. gyaukennedy@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Kennedy Gyau
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Boahen
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, Kumasi, Ghana. mfrimpong28@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frimpong
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, Kumasi, Ghana. browny2gh@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Asare
authors.affiliation: Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research, Kumasi, Ghana. kerl18mcc@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Larbi
authors.affiliation: Department of Tropical Medicine, German Armed Forces Hospital of Hamburg, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. hagen@bnitm.de.
authors.forename: Ralf Matthias
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.affiliation: Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Rudolf-Buchheimstraße 6, Gießen 35392, Germany. sven@poppert.eu.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poppert
authors.affiliation: Robert Koch Institute, FG11, National Reference Centre for Salmonella and other Bacterial Enteric Pathogens, Burgstraße 37, Wernigerode 38855, Germany. rabschw@rki.de.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rabsch
authors.affiliation: International Vaccine Institute, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, South Korea. fmarks@ivi.int.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.affiliation: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Accra Road, Kumasi, Ghana. yasax@hotmail.co.uk.
authors.forename: Yaw
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Adu-Sarkodie
authors.affiliation: Research Group Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. may@bnitm.de.|German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF), Hamburg-Borstel-Lübeck, Bernhard-Nocht-Straße 74, Hamburg 20359, Germany. may@bnitm.de.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: May
mesh_terms: D060766:Drinking Water / Q000382:microbiology*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D004777:Environment; D005838:Genotype; D005869:Ghana; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health; D012475:Salmonella / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012480:Salmonella Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D014871:Water Microbiology; D060753:Water Quality; D060986:Water Wells
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water
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