There is much worry among medical practitioners of bacteria that is resistant to medicine. Bacteria is a living organism that can adapt, and it is adapting against antibiotics. This is making it harder to fight diseases. Now resistant bacteria poses as a threat as it can be found in the air.
Pollution can prove to be much deadlier than expected. A study reveals that air pollution can transmit resistant bacteria. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg have taken air samples from Beijing. They have found that it DNA from genes that make a number of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
Joakim Larsson is a director from the Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research at the University of Gothenburg and a professor at Sahlgrenska Academy. Together with his colleagues he has looked for genes that could make bacteria resistant. So far he has collected 864 samples from human, animals and the environment around the world. Previously he has also been noted for his research of waterborne release of antibiotics, which has shown to make bacteria to be resistant.
He explained that so far only a few of the air samples have been tested. Even with a few samples he has noted that there is a mix of genes present in them that could make bacteria resistant. He noted in particular a gene that can make bacteria resistant to carpapenems. These are antibiotics used as a last resort against diseases that are hard to cure. The University of Gothenburg's site does note that the study has not shown whether the sample bacteria are alive in the air.
Larsson's next research would be to find out if the same is true for air found around European sewage plants, as Science Daily reports. The research would be a joint effort with the funding by the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPI-AMR). There is much that would still be done in order to combat it, as resistant bacteria poses a threat as it can be found in the air. It has also been noted that the Zika virus can stay alive for hours on hard surfaces.
