Whole-genome sequencing reveals high-risk ESBL and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales on maternity ward surfaces in Cameroon
Gabriel Cedric Bessala, Germanie Delaisie Abomo, Henri Rodrigue Njengoue Ngamaleu, Felix Essiben, Nicole E. Wheeler, Michelle M. C. Buckner, Jan-Ulrich Kreft, Blaise Pascal Bougnom · 2026
Read Whole-genome sequencing reveals high-risk ESBL and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales on maternity ward surfaces in Cameroon by Gabriel Cedric Bessala, Germanie Delaisie Abomo, Henri Rodrigue Njengoue Ngamaleu, Felix Essiben, Nicole E. Wheeler, Michelle M. C. Buckner, Jan-Ulrich Kreft, Blaise Pascal Bougnom (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13500677.txt.
Description
Bessala and colleagues swabbed surfaces in birth wards in Yaounde, Cameroon, hunting for the drug-resistant germs that threaten mothers and newborns in exactly the rooms meant to protect them. Hospital surfaces are a recognised reservoir for resistant germs, yet Central African wards had never been surveyed with both culture testing and full genome reading. Their 2026 study covered four wards, testing recovered bacteria against thirteen antibiotics and reading the full genomes of the resistant finds.
Nineteen isolates produced ESBL, the enzyme that defeats penicillins and newer cephalosporins, and most were multidrug-resistant. Two last-resort drugs still worked, but resistance to a third had already appeared, which the authors call alarming. Genome reading identified widespread lineages of E. coli and Klebsiella and plasmids, mobile DNA rings, carrying drug-defeating genes between strains. They urge far stricter cleaning in these wards.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Gabriel Cedric Bessala, Germanie Delaisie Abomo, Henri Rodrigue Njengoue Ngamaleu, Felix Essiben, Nicole E. Wheeler, Michelle M. C. Buckner, Jan-Ulrich Kreft, Blaise Pascal Bougnom |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |