Occurrence of Vibrio pathogen in the final effluents of a wastewater treatment plant in the Eastern Cape of South Africa

摘要

Vibrios are gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria that occur naturally in marine or estuarine environments. Infection with pathogenic species can cause two distinct categories of infection: cholera and vibriosis. Therefore, we assessed the occurrence of Vibrio specie in the final effluent of two wastewater treatment plants in the Eastern Cape for periods of 12 months. The colonies count range from 0 to 9.93 × 103 CFU/100ml. Molecular confirmation was done to confirm some of the presumptive isolates as Vibrio pathogen. The outcome of the study shows that wastewater treatment plant poses imminent danger to the environment particularly to the receiving surface water and the public health.