1.5 Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Water
1.5.1 Occurrence of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
in Wastewater
The spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) has been described as a global
public health problem due to release of the antibiotics from hospital discharge. Every
individual is at risk of getting infected with ARB bacteria, but some populations are
at higher risk such as children, elderly people, and immune-compromised patients. If
antibiotics become ineffective then most modern treatment procedures will become
useless. In the last few decades, water bodies are detected harboring ARB and
antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) in treated and untreated drinking water (Xi et al.
2009). ARB and ARGs are a serious medical concern as they are capable of
transferring the ARGs to the human beings. As per the Center for Disease Control
(CDC), US report, each year two million people get infected with ARB and nearly
25,000 people die of it. A large amount of antibiotics ARBs and ARGs have been
repeatedly isolated from water bodies, animal wastes and manure, agricultural
runoff, surface waters and sediments, municipal wastewaters, and even from treated
drinking water (Chen et al. 2017). Hence, their presence becomes ubiquitous in the
aquatic environment. The potential impact of the environmental presence ARB and
ARGs in water bodies and water distribution systems is still not clear, but there is an
increasing concern throughout the world regarding the rapid spread of ARB and
ARGs in through water system (Fuentes et al. 2019).
Antibiotics and decontamination provide essential individual and public health
protection, respectively, from water, sanitation, and health (WaSH)-related diseases
ranging from dysentery to cholera. But there are growing concerns that even trace
levels of antibiotics and intact DNA remnants from cell debris can promote antibiotic
resistance by gene transfer to “downstream” bacterial populations, including pathogens (Khan et al. 2019). A recent European Commission review concluded that there
is need of general safety measures to improve the effectiveness of wastewater
treatment processes and efforts to control the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry
and in human medical practices. It can reduce the spread of ARB (Pärnänen et al.
2019). A 2018 review by the Global Water Pathogen Project (GWPP) found that
ARGs can be passed on and taken up by virtually all bacteria, so it is important to
reduce general loads of bacteria as well as pathogens to reduce the potential spread of
antimicrobial resistance. The GWPP chapter further concludes the known benefits of
pathogen reduction through disinfection processes to balance the risk index (https://
www.waterpathogens.org/).
1 Microbial Contamination of Drinking Water
11
1.5.1 Occurrence of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
in Wastewater
The spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) has been described as a global
public health problem due to release of the antibiotics from hospital discharge. Every
individual is at risk of getting infected with ARB bacteria, but some populations are
at higher risk such as children, elderly people, and immune-compromised patients. If
antibiotics become ineffective then most modern treatment procedures will become
useless. In the last few decades, water bodies are detected harboring ARB and
antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) in treated and untreated drinking water (Xi et al.
2009). ARB and ARGs are a serious medical concern as they are capable of
transferring the ARGs to the human beings. As per the Center for Disease Control
(CDC), US report, each year two million people get infected with ARB and nearly
25,000 people die of it. A large amount of antibiotics ARBs and ARGs have been
repeatedly isolated from water bodies, animal wastes and manure, agricultural
runoff, surface waters and sediments, municipal wastewaters, and even from treated
drinking water (Chen et al. 2017). Hence, their presence becomes ubiquitous in the
aquatic environment. The potential impact of the environmental presence ARB and
ARGs in water bodies and water distribution systems is still not clear, but there is an
increasing concern throughout the world regarding the rapid spread of ARB and
ARGs in through water system (Fuentes et al. 2019).
Antibiotics and decontamination provide essential individual and public health
protection, respectively, from water, sanitation, and health (WaSH)-related diseases
ranging from dysentery to cholera. But there are growing concerns that even trace
levels of antibiotics and intact DNA remnants from cell debris can promote antibiotic
resistance by gene transfer to “downstream” bacterial populations, including pathogens (Khan et al. 2019). A recent European Commission review concluded that there
is need of general safety measures to improve the effectiveness of wastewater
treatment processes and efforts to control the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry
and in human medical practices. It can reduce the spread of ARB (Pärnänen et al.
2019). A 2018 review by the Global Water Pathogen Project (GWPP) found that
ARGs can be passed on and taken up by virtually all bacteria, so it is important to
reduce general loads of bacteria as well as pathogens to reduce the potential spread of
antimicrobial resistance. The GWPP chapter further concludes the known benefits of
pathogen reduction through disinfection processes to balance the risk index (https://
www.waterpathogens.org/).
1 Microbial Contamination of Drinking Water
11