Biomedical waste management: Study on the awareness and practice among healthcare workers in a tertiary teaching hospital.

Bio-medical waste has a higher potential of infection and injury to the healthcare worker, patient and the surrounding community. Awareness programmes on their proper handling and management to healthcare workers can prevent the spread of infectious diseases and epidemics. This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital to assess the impact of training, audits and education/implementations from 2009 to 2012 on awareness and practice of biomedical waste segregation. Our study reveals focused training, strict supervision, daily surveillance, audits inspections, involvement of hospital administrators and regular appraisals are essential to optimise the segregation of biomedical waste.

Bioactive actinomycetes from Krishna River sediments of Andhra Pradesh.

Sediment samples from Krishna River at Nagayalanka of Andhra Pradesh, India were investigated as a source of actinomycetes to screen for the production of novel bioactive compounds. During our investigation on fresh water actinomycetes from 5 different river sediment samples, a total of 80 actinomycetes were isolated. Out of these 80 isolates, 30 isolates which showed distinct macromorphological characteristics were selected. The antimicrobial and enzymatic activities were studied for all the 30 isolates. The preliminary study for antimicrobial activity by cross streak method indicated that 16 isolates (53.3%) have excellent antagonistic properties. All these 16 isolates were subjected to detailed submerged fermentation studies. It was observed that 12 isolates (40.0%) exhibited antibacterial activity, 9 isolates (30.0%) showed antifungal activity while 5 isolates (16.6%) showed both antibacterial and antifungal activities. All the 30 isolates were also subjected for the determination of enzymatic activities 25 isolates (83.3%) exhibited amylolytic activity while 27 isolates (90.0%) showed proteolytic activity. Among these isolates, six promising isolates were selected for detailed morphological, cultural, physiological and biochemical studies. It was established that these isolates belong to the Streptomyces genus by virtue of their cell wall composition pattern and were identified as strains of different Streptomyces species like S. rochei, S. alanosinicus, S. erumpens, S. griseoplanus, S. gancidicus and S. nigrogriseolus.

Production and optimization studies of cephalosporin C by solid state fermentation.

Production of cephalosporin C employing a strain, Cephalosporium sp. NCIM 1039 under solid state fermentation was optimized. Different substrates like wheat bran, wheat grains, rice grains, barley and rice bran were studied to optimize the best substrate. Wheat bran showed the highest antibiotic yield. The physical and chemical parameters were optimized. The maximum productivity of cephalosporin C (750 U/g) was achieved by employing wheat bran and with optimized nutritional and process parameters such as potato starch as additive 1% w/w, urea as additive 1% w/w, incubation period of 7 days, incubation temperature at 30 degrees C, inoculum level 10% w/v, moisture content of solid substrate 80% and pH 7.0.

Bioactive rare actinomycetes from indigenous natural substrates of Andhra Pradesh.

This investigation reports the occurrence of bioactive rare actinomycetes from different indigenous natural substrates of Andhra Pradesh. During the course of our investigation on 20 terrestrial soil samples, 5 marine samples and 3 fresh water samples, a total of 92 rare actinomycetes belonging to Micromonospora, Nocardia, Actinomadura and Thermoactinomyces genera were isolated. The antimicrobial and enzymatic activities were studied for all the isolates. The antibacterial and antifungal activities were studied preliminarily by cross-streak method followed by submerged fermentation studies employing standard cup-plate method for the assay. It was found that 34 isolates (36.95%) showed excellent antibacterial activity and 29 isolates (31.52%) showed good antifungal activity. Proteolytic and amylolytic activities were also studied. It was observed that 79 isolates (85.86%) showed proteolytic activity and 75 isolates (81.52%) showed amylolytic activity.