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antimicrobial resistance
Reducing Air Pollution Could Play 'Major Role' in Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance: Study
For the first time, researchers have linked air pollution with antibiotic-resistant microbes.
Aug 08, 2023
A study published this week in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet is the first to link air pollution with antimicrobial resistance, a growing public health threat around the world.
"Antibiotic resistance is an increasingly global issue, causing millions of deaths worldwide every year," the Chinese and British authors wrote in the study, which used data collected from more than 100 countries over nearly 20 years. "Our analysis presents strong evidence that increasing levels of air pollution are associated with increased risk of antibiotic resistance."
"The findings have substantial policy and environmental implications by presenting a new pathway to combat clinical antibiotic resistance by controlling environmental pollution," the researchers added.
Hong Chen, a professor at Zhejiang University in China and the study's lead author, toldThe Guardian that "antibiotic resistance and air pollution are each in their own right among the greatest threats to global health."
"Until now, we didn't have a clear picture of the possible links between the two, but this work suggests the benefits of controlling air pollution could be twofold: Not only will it reduce the harmful effects of poor air quality, it could also play a major role in combating the rise and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria," Chen added.
A paper published in The Lancet last year attributed 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019 to antimicrobial resistance—more people than perished from malaria or AIDS that year. The United Nations Environmental Program warned last month that "if unchecked, [antimicrobial resistance] could shave $3.4 trillion off GDP annually and push 24 million more people into extreme poverty in the next decade."
Other research estimated that by 2050, as many as 10 million people could die annually around the world due to drug-resistant bacteria and microbes, a higher death toll than cancer.
Air pollution is already responsible for around 1 in 5 global deaths, according to multiple studies published in recent years.
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Fueled by Industry Pollution, Superbugs Could Kill 10 Million People Per Year by 2050: UN
"Antimicrobial resistance is one of the definitive challenges of our times," said one U.N. leader. "Getting a grip on environmental pollution is critical."
Feb 07, 2023
A new report out Tuesday from the U.N. Environment Program warns that as many as 10 million people could die from so-called "Superbugs" annually by 2050 as the result of antimicrobial resistance driven by environmental pollution and irresponsible practices from a range of industries.
The report, titled Bracing for Superbugs, explains how pollution from hospital wastewater, sewage discharged from pharmaceutical production facilities, and run-off from animal and plant agriculture can be rife with "not only resistant microorganisms, but also antimicrobials, various pharmaceuticals, microplastics, metals, and other chemicals, which all increase the risk of AMR [antimicrobial resistance] in the environment."
The more prevalent AMR becomes, the more likely the global community is to face a fast-spreading "superbug," which would threaten people in wealthy countries with well-funded healthcare systems and people across the Global South alike.
Preventing the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs is just the latest reason for global policymakers to ensure "solid regulation of discharges [and] strengthening [of] wastewater treatment," wrote U.N. researchers in the report, as UNEP executive director Inger Andersen noted that the report shows the far-reaching benefits of acting to protect the environment.
"Polluted waterways, particularly those that have been polluted for some time, are likely to harbor microorganisms that increase AMR development and distribution in the environment."
"The same drivers that cause environmental degradation are worsening the antimicrobial resistance problem," said Andersen at the sixth meeting of the Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (GLGAMR) in Barbados. "The impacts of anti-microbial resistance could destroy our health and food systems. Cutting down pollution is a prerequisite for another century of progress towards zero hunger and good health."
Currently, AMR is linked to as many as 1.27 million deaths per year, and as Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the chair of the GLGAMR, said at the conference, the crisis "is disproportionately affecting countries in the Global South."
\u201c"The environmental crisis of our time is also one of human rights and geopolitics" \u2013 Prime Minister of Barbados & @GLGAMR Chair @miaamormottley cites inequities & calls for global action on #AntimicrobialResistance at launch of @UNEP report: https://t.co/AFHp0xhMyS\u201d— UN Environment Programme (@UN Environment Programme) 1675796461
According to the study, the pharmaceutical industry frequently releases untreated wastewater containing "active pharmaceutical ingredients" such as "antibiotics, antivirals, and fungicides, as well as disinfectants."
Those contaminants increase the likelihood that "resistant superbugs" will "survive in untreated sewage," reads The Guardian.
According to UNEP, chronically polluted waterways are more likely "to harbor microorganisms that increase AMR development and distribution in the environment."
From the agricultural industry, the report warns that the "use of antimicrobials to treat infection and promote growth" among livestock, the "use of reclaimed wastewater for irrigating crops, use of manure as fertilizer, and inadequate waste management" all serve as entry points for AMR organisms into the environment.
UNEP noted that countries including Belgium, China, Thailand, the Netherlands, and Denmark have all "meaningfully reduced antimicrobial use in food animal husbandry."
According to a study published in OnEarth in 2014, Denmark instituted reforms including significantly limiting how much veterinarians could profit from the sale of antibiotics starting in 1995, and four years later outlawed all "nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in pigs... a huge change in a nation that is the world's leading exporter of pork."
"Although the situation is improving in some parts of the world, vast amounts of antimicrobials are used to treat and prevent infections in food animals," Matthew Upton, a professor of medical microbiology at the University of Plymouth in the U.K., told The Guardian. "Improved husbandry and other infection prevention and control methods like vaccination should be used to reduce infections and the need for antimicrobial use, which in turn limits environmental pollution with antimicrobials, antimicrobial residues, and resistant microbes."
Other steps policymakers can take, said UNEP, include:
- Increasing global efforts to improve integrated water management and promote water, sanitation, and hygiene to limit the development and spread of AMR in the environment as well as to reduce infections and need for antimicrobials;
- Integrating environmental considerations into national action plans on AMR which were developed in 2016 through the U.N.'s "One Health" campaign aimed at linking concerns for the well-being of humans with that of the environment and wildlife;
- Establishing international standards for what are good microbiological indicators of AMR from environmental samples, which can be used to guide risk reduction decisions and create effective incentives to follow such guidance; and
- Exploring options to redirect investments, to establish new and innovative financial incentives and schemes, and to make the investment case to guarantee sustainable funding for tackling AMR.
"AMR is one of the definitive challenges of our times," Andersen
tweeted on Tuesday. "Getting a grip on environmental pollution is critical."
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