ABSTRACT

There is an increasing universal awareness of environmental problems arising as a result of pollution especially in Nigeria. Among the source of this problem is effluent discharge from industries, particularly hospitals. To determine the extent of this problem in Abia state, two outstanding hospitals were purposively selected and their effluent characteristics studied between January, February and March, 2021. The selected hospitals were Madonna Catholic Hospital and Abia Specialist Hospital in Umuahia. The wastewater samples were collected from three different wards namely maternity, general private, and GOPD wards in Madonna hospital between 6:30am to 8:00am. Results obtained shows significant variation in Physiochemical properties in some ward and Heavy metals across all the wards however, the parameters were within Federal Ministry of Environment  recommended limit while TDS in some  wards range from 526mg/l to,643mg/l  against 500mg/l WHO limit. Microbial isolates in General  ward, laboratory section and dialysis unit for Abia Specialist Hospital result showed the presence of seven bacteria speciesStaphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klesbsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, bacteriod sp and Streptococcus pyogenes And one fungi specie candida albicanThe bacterial load in Madonna ranged from  209.04× 10⁷  to 232.95× fu/ml in January, February, and March respectively and was statistically the same in the three wards at each month (p>0.05). while fungi load ranged from  1.58  × 10⁴ cfu/ml to 2.35× 10⁴ cfu/ml in January, February, and March respectively and was significantly different (p>0.05). also, Abia Specialist Hospital, bacterial load ranged from 213.32 to 240.43× 10⁷ cfu/ml in January, February, and March respectively and was statistically at (p>0.05). The fungi load ranged from 0.72 to 2.19× 10⁴ cfu/ml, in January, February, and March respectively and was significantly different between the three wards in January and February. It also differed between general ward and others in March. The frequency of microbial isolation in the two Hospital Wastewater range from 33% to100% with 100% ofStaphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, in all the wards while others species varies significantly between 67% and 33% respectively. The results of the isolated bacteria from hospital wastewater showed resistivity to the tested antibiotics, as well as therapeutic agents. Therefore these drugs would be ineffective as treatments for infections caused by these pathogens. Therefore it is required that these hospitals treat the wastewater before discharging into the environment.