Contributed by Dr. Akilesh Ramasamy & Dr. A.J. Tamhankar
Pharmaceutical companies have shifted their manufacturing units from the West to developing countries in Eastern countries in Asia for advantages. This has helped the economy of these countries as well. But a new issues has cropped up in these countries.
A group of researchers have been following the effects of the pharmaceutical company's effluents. They found that most of the effluents were discharged into sewage water without treatment. These effluents were laden with antibiotics with ciprofloxacin topping the charts. This creates a vicious and dangerous cycle of antibiotic resistance spread in the environment as well. The entire food web concentrates these antibiotics spreading it to the humans at the top of the food chain. As most sewage ends up in the seas, it can contaminate the sea foods as well. The effects are more devastating than we realise / know.
To complicate matters, chlorine, a commonly used chemical for treating sewage has been found to promote antibiotic resistance. Chlorine when used on antibiotic laden sewage, is unable to remove the antibiotics but may also combine with them to form new antibiotic compounds which can then creep into the environment complicating the issue of antibiotic resistance. This can potentially create antibiotic resistance to even not-yet-discovered antibiotics. We are very well running fast into the pre-antibiotic era, it appears.
This brings antibiotic resistance to the very doors of the people. Antibiotics were found in very high quantities in the effluents discharged. This can cause resistance in the organisms in these waters. Many of the bacterial infections are water-food borne or spread by feco-oral transmission which again may be spread via contaminated water bodies. Natural calamities, floods as well as pipe bursts / faults cause frequent contamination of sewage water with potable water lines in many Asian countries. These pathogens in sewage water would already by resistant to most antibiotics, which in turn can cause antibiotic resistant infections which would be difficult to treat especially in times of disasters like flood and natural calamities, when resources are very low. Mortality would be very high then.
Government and environmental bodies must look into this issue and with involvement of the public as well as the pharmaceutical companies, must be stringent about letting out effluents laden with antibiotics into sewage water untreated.
Source:
1. Article in Chemosphere
2. Nature - News, 2009
Pharmaceutical companies have shifted their manufacturing units from the West to developing countries in Eastern countries in Asia for advantages. This has helped the economy of these countries as well. But a new issues has cropped up in these countries.
A group of researchers have been following the effects of the pharmaceutical company's effluents. They found that most of the effluents were discharged into sewage water without treatment. These effluents were laden with antibiotics with ciprofloxacin topping the charts. This creates a vicious and dangerous cycle of antibiotic resistance spread in the environment as well. The entire food web concentrates these antibiotics spreading it to the humans at the top of the food chain. As most sewage ends up in the seas, it can contaminate the sea foods as well. The effects are more devastating than we realise / know.
To complicate matters, chlorine, a commonly used chemical for treating sewage has been found to promote antibiotic resistance. Chlorine when used on antibiotic laden sewage, is unable to remove the antibiotics but may also combine with them to form new antibiotic compounds which can then creep into the environment complicating the issue of antibiotic resistance. This can potentially create antibiotic resistance to even not-yet-discovered antibiotics. We are very well running fast into the pre-antibiotic era, it appears.
This brings antibiotic resistance to the very doors of the people. Antibiotics were found in very high quantities in the effluents discharged. This can cause resistance in the organisms in these waters. Many of the bacterial infections are water-food borne or spread by feco-oral transmission which again may be spread via contaminated water bodies. Natural calamities, floods as well as pipe bursts / faults cause frequent contamination of sewage water with potable water lines in many Asian countries. These pathogens in sewage water would already by resistant to most antibiotics, which in turn can cause antibiotic resistant infections which would be difficult to treat especially in times of disasters like flood and natural calamities, when resources are very low. Mortality would be very high then.
Government and environmental bodies must look into this issue and with involvement of the public as well as the pharmaceutical companies, must be stringent about letting out effluents laden with antibiotics into sewage water untreated.
Source:
1. Article in Chemosphere
2. Nature - News, 2009
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