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More examination urged of overall antimicrobial resistance picture
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Widespread antimicrobial use in clinical medicine and agriculture has resulted in environmental pollution containing antimicrobial residues that lead to selective pressure in both the farmed and natural environments, which has led to a “dramatic erosion” in the antibiotic arsenal, according to results in a paper published online this month.
Gerald D. Wright, PhD, of McMaster University in Canada, William H. Gaze, PhD, of Exeter University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues said although hospitals remain “hot spots for the acquisition, amplification, and dissemination of resistance genes,” the resistance problem extends well beyond the health care environment.
William H. Gaze
“The stacking of genes for resistance to pollutants and multiple antimicrobial drugs on a single mobile genetic element leads to situations in which an array of environmental pressures, largely of human origin, can simultaneously select for many different resistance mechanisms,” the researchers said.
They noted that the erosion of the antibiotic arsenal is a problem that must be addressed. In the paper, Gaze and colleagues urge research into the environmental concentrations of antimicrobial drugs and other bioactive pollutants, and whether they select for resistance mechanisms in bacteria present in the environment in the same way that clinical use of antimicrobials selects for resistance in human associated bacteria.
The study was released in the same week that US Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has reintroduced the Strategies to Address Antimicrobial Resistance Act, urging Congress to address the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance and the scarcity of new antimicrobials.
William H. Gaze, PhD, can be reached at w.h.gaze@exeter.ac.uk.
Disclosure: Gaze reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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