Global Carriage of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes and Virulence Factors Among Physicians in Cirrhosis Care
Abstract
Cirrhosis patients are at high risk for drug-resistant infections, which may be transmitted between patients and healthcare providers. In this study, we used shotgun metagenomics to characterize the fecal microbiome of physicians in cirrhosis care (n = 55) across 9 countries. Our results indicate physicians from low- or middle-income countries carry greater antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) diversity corresponding to increased taxonomic richness. Physicians carried a low prevalence of clinically relevant ARGs or virulence factors (VFs), regardless of country of practice or patient exposure. Further comparison of fecal microbiomes between a subset of cirrhosis patients and physicians’ fecal samples collected from the same medical facility in the United States indicated that cirrhosis patients carried a far greater burden of high-risk VFs and ARGs. Collectively, this study provides evidence that most physicians in cirrhosis care are unlikely to be a primary reservoir of drug-resistant pathogens, although further surveillance of healthcare workers is warranted.
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BibTeX
@misc{sommer2026global,
title = {{Global Carriage of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes and Virulence Factors Among Physicians in Cirrhosis Care}},
author = {Andrew J Sommer and Masoumeh Sikaroodi and Andrew Fagan and Brian C Davis and Alexander Khoruts and Patrick M Gillevet and Jasmohan S Bajaj},
howpublished = {Research Square},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.21203/rs.3.rs-11319770/v1},
url = {https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-11319770/v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Global Carriage of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes and Virulence Factors Among Physicians in Cirrhosis Care
AU - Andrew J Sommer
AU - Masoumeh Sikaroodi
AU - Andrew Fagan
AU - Brian C Davis
AU - Alexander Khoruts
AU - Patrick M Gillevet
AU - Jasmohan S Bajaj
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
PB - Research Square
DO - 10.21203/rs.3.rs-11319770/v1
UR - https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-11319770/v1
AB - Cirrhosis patients are at high risk for drug-resistant infections, which may be transmitted between patients and healthcare providers. In this study, we used shotgun metagenomics to characterize the fecal microbiome of physicians in cirrhosis care (n = 55) across 9 countries. Our results indicate physicians from low- or middle-income countries carry greater antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) diversity corresponding to increased taxonomic richness. Physicians carried a low prevalence of clinically relevant ARGs or virulence factors (VFs), regardless of country of practice or patient exposure. Further comparison of fecal microbiomes between a subset of cirrhosis patients and physicians’ fecal samples collected from the same medical facility in the United States indicated that cirrhosis patients carried a far greater burden of high-risk VFs and ARGs. Collectively, this study provides evidence that most physicians in cirrhosis care are unlikely to be a primary reservoir of drug-resistant pathogens, although further surveillance of healthcare workers is warranted.
SN - 2693-5015
ER -