“Air pollution and antibiotic resistance are currently the two biggest threats to public health,” according to recent large-scale research on bacteria in particulate matter from air pollution. Resistance to antibiotics is increasing in areas where a lot of air pollution is measured.
A study of Hong Chen, a professor at Zhejiang University in China, took two decades to complete and took place in more than a hundred different countries.
His research revealed that harmful particulate matter of 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in polluted air contains resistant bacteria and penetrates people’s airways. These PM2.5 particles are emitted by industry, traffic and wood burning.
Overusage …
Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to public health, causing the death of an estimated 1.3 million people each year. The main factor contributing to resistance is the overuse of antibiotics.
However, air pollution is also a threat that we should not take lightly, says Hong Chen. After all, exposure to polluted air has been linked to an increased risk of asthma, heart disease and lung cancer.
According to his research team, antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread through the air, for example because hospitals, farms and sewage treatment plants emit them.
“Antibiotic resistance and air pollution are, in their own way, among the biggest threats to public health,” Chen said at the news site Ynetnews.com.
“Until now we had no clear picture of the relationship between those two factors, but this study shows that the benefits of reducing air pollution are twofold: not only is healthy air better for everyone anyway, it can also play an important role in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”
… and air pollution
In total, his researchers collected a total of 11.5 million research samples between 2000 and 2018. The analyzes showed that for every 10 percent increase in air pollution, antibiotic resistance increased by an average of 1.1 percent.
The link grew stronger over the years: an increase in PM2.5 led to an even greater increase in antibiotic resistance. The analysis links no less than 480,000 deaths in 2018 to antibiotic resistance due to air pollution.
Although antibiotics save lives, experts warned more than a decade ago that the widespread use of antibiotics would lead to bacteria resistance to these drugs. Many infectious diseases currently have no effective treatment due to this resistance.
According to 2017 World Health Organization (WHO) data, the highest antibiotic use was recorded in the Far East, where each child receives an average of 3.5 antibiotic treatments per year.
In the US and Eastern Europe, children receive an average of 1 to 1.5 antibiotic treatments per year, while the use of antibiotics is falling the most in Scandinavian countries. There, children receive an average of only 0.5 (one every two years) or even fewer treatments per year.
2023-08-10 12:45:23
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