A comprehensive analysis sewage collected in 74 cities in 60 countries has yielded the first, comparable global data, which show the levels and types of antimicrobial resistant bacteria that are present in mainly healthy people in these countries.
A comprehensive analysis sewage collected in 74 cities in 60 countries has yielded the first, comparable global data, which show the levels and types of antimicrobial resistant bacteria that are present in mainly healthy people in these countries. The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, headed the study, which was conducted by an international team of researchers.
In this metagenomics study, the researchers have mapped out all the DNA material in the sewage samples and found that according to antimicrobial resistance, the world's countries fall within two groups: North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand generally have the lowest levels of antimicrobial resistance; while Asia, Africa and South America have the highest levels.
Brazil, India and Vietnam have the greatest diversity in resistance genes, while Australia and New Zealand have the lowest.
Sanitation and health closely linked to antimicrobial resistance
According to the researchers, the use of antimicrobials only explains a minor part of the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in the various countries. Therefore, the researchers have searched for other factors that could be either drivers for or indicators of the occurrence of resistant bacteria. In this work, they have used several comprehensive data sets from the World Bank, which e.g. have measured the countries' health status and stage of development.
Read more at Technical University of Denmark
Image: Sewage sample being collected in Sakasaka, Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana. (Credit: Courage Kosi Setsoafia Saba, University for Development Studies, Ghana.)
