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allied
academies
Joint Event
February 21-22, 2019 | Paris, France
Microbiology & Applied
Microbiology
2
nd
International Conference on
World Congress on
Wound Care, Tissue Repair
and Regenerative Medicine
&
Journal of Trauma and Critical Care | Volume 3
I
would highlight my work on hog confinements, hospitals
and the athletic center in a talk titled “The rise in antibiotic
resistance; contributing factors and possible solutions”. The
lecture would begin with an introduction to the current state of
antibiotic resistance and its implications on human health and
health care. I will explore reasons for the increased resistance,
specifically the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. I will
discuss my recent work to monitor antibiotic resistance genes
in hog manure, agriculture soils and sediments. The second half
of the talk will examine possible ways to combat the spread
of antibiotic resistance in hospitals and community centers.
To reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections, we need
to limit the number of bacteria surrounding patients. I will
share our recent studies in which we compared the bacterial
loads on high touch surfaces made of either copper alloys or
conventional materials such as stainless steel or porcelain. This
study was conducted at Grinnell Regional Medial Center, a 49-
bed rural hospital, primarily inmedical-surgical suite rooms with
a few items throughout the hospital. Surfaces were sampled in
both occupied and unoccupied patient rooms. We found that
copper alloy surfaces significantly reduced the bacterial loads
by an average of 98% compared to control surfaces. We found
no significant difference in bacterial loads between control
occupied and unoccupied rooms; suggesting that although a
room may look clean, it does not guarantee the surfaces are
free of bacteria. This study demonstrated that patients entering
rooms with high touch copper alloy surfaces are exposed to
substantially fewer bacteria than patients entering rooms
with standard surfaces. It also highlighted the ability of copper
alloy surfaces to maintain bacterial loads at or near cleanliness
standards following terminal cleaning of the hospital room. We
expanded this work to our athletic center, a community site in
which antibiotic resistant bacteria are commonly shared. This is
the first study of copper alloys in an athletic center setting and
we found a 94% reduction in bacterial counts by these surfaces.
We also identified the most common bacteria found on copper
and control surfaces and tested their sensitivity to antibiotics.
Both the hospital and athletic center studies were published
in the American Journal of Infection Control. infections.
Speaker Biography
Shannon Hinsa Leasure is an associate professor of biology and an environmental
microbiologist at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her research interests includemicrobial diversity,
antibiotic resistance and genetic exchange, as well as bacterial adaptations to varied
environments. Most recently she has investigated the ability of copper alloy materials to
reducebacterial loads inhospitalsandfitnesscenters.Additionally,she isstudyingantibiotic
resistance gene profiles on farms, in collaboration with researchers at Iowa State University
and the Agricultural Research Service at the USA. Department of Agriculture. As time
permits, she continues her study of microbial diversity and biofilm formation in Siberian
permafrost. At Grinnell, she teaches courses in microbiology, environmental microbiology,
cell biology and microbial pathogenesis. She also maintains an active laboratory with
undergraduate students. She earned her B.S. in bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison and her Ph.D. from Dartmouth Medical School in molecular and cellular biology.
e:
hinsa@grinnell.eduShannon Hinsa Leasure
Grinnel College, USA
The rise in antibiotic resistance; contributing factors and possible solutions
Shannon Hinsa Leasure
,
J Trauma Crit Care, Volume 3
DOI: 10.4066/2591-7358-C1-001