The risk is that doctors choose what’s called a broad-spectrum antibiotic — a powerful drug that kills many different types of bacteria. These drugs should be a last resort, as bacteria that mutate to resist them can be dangerous — and possibly incurable.
Wastewater monitoring may reveal which bacteria are circulating in communities, and which antibiotics those bacteria are susceptible to. If scientists notice an increase in genes that confer resistance to a particular antibiotic, they might advise doctors in the area to avoid prescribing the drug, Kirby said.
We can also use water monitoring to monitor how antibiotic resistance genes pollute the environment. “When we take a course of antibiotics, up to 90 percent of the antibiotics are excreted in feces or urine and can end up in our drains,” Leonard said. Some of this wastewater can find its way into rivers, lakes and oceans.
This means that not only can we potentially release our own AMR bacteria into the environment, but we can also encourage the development of new antibiotic-resistant bacteria in surface water and animal habitats. These bacteria, or at least their antibiotic resistance genes, can re-enter the body.
Leonard has been searching for antibiotic resistance in coastal waters around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. She found that people who spend a lot of time in the water — such as surfers —more likely to have antibiotic-resistant bacteria in their gutPeople who bathed in the sea were “three times more likely to have these resistant bacteria than people who didn’t bathe in the sea,” she said.
Not a very good idea. Especially since even if these bacteria don’t make people sick, it’s possible that they’re swapping genes with other bacteria in the human gut. And we really don’t know if there’s going to be some kind of harmful resistant bacteria.
I tested negative for covid – I may have a low grade cold. I know I have billions of bacteria in my gut and all over my body, some of which may be resistant to antibiotics. I hope they don’t turn out to be anything dangerous.
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The response to covid has involved focus, determination and a lot of money. We should use the same approach to tackle antimicrobial resistance, Maryn McKenna wrote 2021.
