Methods to Combat Antibiotic Resistance in the Wastewater Treatment Plants

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High amount of antibiotics such as Antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) are released into the wastewater which find their way into natural environmental conditions. Increasing microbial pathogens and antibiotic resistance among them is a global public health issue. The growth and spread of ARB and ARGs in the environment may result in an increase of antibiotic resistant microbial pathogens which is a worldwide environmental and public health concern. So a proper treatment of wastewater is necessary before its disposal into water bodies or sewage system in order to prevent the spread of ARB and ARGs into the environment.

 

Reports have shown that, constructed wetlands, low-energy anaerobic–aerobic treatment reactors and  a few disinfection processes have shown good removal efficiencies. Combination of Nanomaterials along with biochar and some other treatment methods and coagulation process are very recent strategies involving ARB and ARGs removal. However, research is still going on and many findings are yet to be proved.



Recently, the WHO announced that antibiotic resistance is on the increase, and treatment options are yet limited for this purpose.

Some observations have shown that Low-energy anaerobic–aerobic treatment reactors reduce high concentrations of various ARGs from domestic wastewater. Also, constructed wetlands with different plant species or flow configurations have been designed and have come to be known as attractive wastewater treatment methodologies or approaches on eliminating ARGs from raw domestic wastewater. Large amount of studies on the inactivation of ARG by disinfection have been conducted using chlorination, also, some studies have used  UV irradiation, allowing an evaluation of the two processes regarding their efficiency and mechanism. Just recently, nanoparticles have shown to be effective in removal of ARG and have become a defence mechanism against ARB along with combination of antibiotics.

The coagulation process as the tertiary treatment process in WWTPs has also recently been known as an active method for ARGs removal and the use of biochar makes a significant change in the microbial communities and inactivate ARGs after addition of biochar in the soil. These are the few developments recently and a lot is yet to be discovered.

Thus, the emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogens has enhanced the demand for current treatment strategies.




 

References:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jgar.2014.10.001

 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02603

NOM-iron(II, III) systems and antibacterial activity studies. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48, 3228–3235. doi: 10.1021/es405641r

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Al-Jassim, N. M. I., Ansari, H. M., and Hong, P. Y. (2015). Removal of bacterial contaminants and antibiotic resistance genes by conventional wastewater treatment processes in Saudi Arabia: is the treated wastewater safe to reuse for agricultural irrigation? Water Res. 73, 277–290. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2015.01.036

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Aruguete, D. M., Kim, B., Hochella, M. F. Jr., Ma, Y., Cheng, Y., Hoegh, A., et al. (2013). Antimicrobial nanotechnology: its potential for the effective management of microbial drug resistance and implications for research needs in microbial nanotoxicology. Environ. Sci. Process. Impacts 15, 93–102. doi: 10.1039/c2em30692a

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar


Comments

  1. Asha A JNovember 10, 2020 at 2:52 AM

    It is true that WHO announced about antibiotic resistance is on the increase, and treatment options are yet limited. Hope this issue gets resolved quick enough.Good article though.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Josef MNovember 10, 2020 at 2:55 AM

    Inactivation of ARG by disinfection UV irradiation have been to be more efficient and effective compared to chlorination. Well done guys. Keep it up.

    ReplyDelete

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