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piqer for: Health and Sanity Boom and bust Climate and Environment
Melissa Hutsell is an award-winning freelance journalist with a deep rooted passion for both community and international journalism. She was born and raised in Northern California, and has lived, studied, worked, and traveled in more 20 different countries. Melissa holds a Master's degree in Global Journalism from City University London, as well as degrees in Journalism and Globalization from Humboldt State University. Though she covers various topics as both a writer and editor, she specializes in business and cannabis journalism.
The Newest Threat To The Environment: Antibiotic-Resistant Genes
Antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) are floating in the air throughout major cities across the world.
In a new study, published in “Environmental Science and Technology,” a team of researchers found that bacteria not only build resistance to antibiotics by coming in contact with the drugs; they build resistance by transferring genes among each other while airborne.
This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 500,000 people worldwide had antibiotic resistant infections – or superbugs – that are virtually untreatable because they contain ARGs, which protect them from most drugs.
Typically, ARGs spread when a superbug survives a dose of antibiotics, and multiplies. However, the new study has found that “these ARGs can spread a different way: They can become airborne, traveling from bacteria to bacteria around the world — creating new forms of superbugs,” the article reports. The process is called horizontal transfer.
Thirty different types of ARGs were found in 19 cities across the world. The city with the highest concentration was San Francisco, while the lowest was Bandung, Indonesia. Each city had varying levels of bacteria, some with higher resistance to drugs like penicillin, others with resistance to ciproflaxin.
More research is needed to determine how these ARGs originate, but one theory suggests it’s initiated at animal treatment plants and feeding operations, or wastewater treatment facilities.
thanks for this piq, melissa! the results sound alarming but there's a caveat: a brief look into the original paper (https://pubs.acs.org/d..., open access) reveals that the researchers measured total ARG-DNA (antibiotic resistance genes-DNA) on their filters but made no efforts to discriminate between DNA transported through air *within* living bacteria and DNA freely floating in the air. it is known since decades that bacteria travel large distances through air and remain viable, that is, can potentially exchange genes with other bacteria they encounter either when "airborne", in a raindrop, or whenever they "meet" on a surface (i'm tempted to quote: "two bacteria walk into a bar, ..."). in fact, they exchange all kind of DNA all the time at a mind-boggling rate (but most gets lost soon, otherwise microbiologists would not be able to discriminate bacterial species, which they can). under normal circumstances, the acquisition of ARG-DNA by a bacterium from a neighbor bacterium (of whatever "branch") is not a big threat as antibiotic resistant bacteria have a growth disadvantage and cannot compete with their non-resistant siblings. that is, unless they get into contact with an antibiotic, for example in a hospital. then, of course, the resistant ones win. and that is really bad for me and you. particularly if these bacteria are resistant to multiple antibiotics: some estimated 20,000+ deaths per year due to "superbugs" in germany alone. ARG-DNA floating freely in the air (derived from dead and "exploded" bacteria) is a far less dangerous thing as UV light easily renders DNA biologically ineffective for "horizontal gene transfer" but does not necessarily prevent its detection by the method the researchers applied.
Thank you Christoph, very interesting!