IWRA 2023 Online Conference - Emerging Pollutants: Protecting Water Quality for the Health of People and the Environment
Theme 1: Emerging pollutants in aquatic ecosystems
Author(s): Joseph Alcamo, Netsanet Alamirew, Jaeyoung Lee
Joseph Alcamo, Director Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP); Professor, Environmental Systems Science (School of Global Studies; Geography Dept.) University of Sussex
Oral: PDFAbstract
Aquatic pathways of antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance
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WHO: One of top10 global public health threats, SDG 3?
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Overuse antibiotics & other … cause more frequent mutations bacteria -> resistant to antibiotics …
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> 1 M deaths/yr (2019)
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Tuberculosis, HIV …
Antimicrobial resistance in aquatic systems
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Presence of resistant genes, organisms, antibiotics
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Antibiotics interact with bacteria other organisms -> resistant bacteria, ….
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Pathways to humans: water supply, water contact, fishery …
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What is the significance of this pathway???
Result: Loading of total antibiotics to freshwater systems -> global hot spot areas
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Main hot spot areas: High pop. density areas (urban & rural) → related to human antibiotic consumption, low removal by wastewater treatment, low/no treatment coverage
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Antibiotics loading lower in most low pop. density rural areas → catchment retention of antibiotics
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Some rural areas have hot spots related to intensive use of antibiotics for livestock (e.g. China, Europe)
Sum Up
Antibiotic loadings to freshwater systems are widely distributed → Hot spot areas present on all continents Task: Deep dive into hot spot areas; linkage of loadings with water concentrations and risk of spreading antimicrobial resistance via rivers & lakes
Thursday, January 19th, 2023, 11:00 CET