Polluted city air may be means of
transmission for ‘superbugs’, warn scientists who have found that air samples
from Beijing contain DNA from genes that make bacteria resistant to the most powerful
antibiotics. This may be a more important means of transmission than previously
thought. The researchers looked for genes that make bacteria resistant to
antibiotics in a total of 864 samples of DNA collected from humans, animals and
different environments worldwide. Researchers studied only a small number of
air samples, so to generalize; they need to examine the air from more places. But
the air samples they did analyse showed a wide mix of different resistance
genes. Of particular concern is that researchers found a series of genes that
provide resistance to carbapenems, a group of last resort antibiotics taken for
infections caused by bacteria that are often very difficult to treat. The results
do not show whether the sampled bacteria were actually alive in the air, which
would make them a real threat. It is reasonable to believe that there is a
mixture of live and dead bacteria, based on experience from other studies of
air. The next step for the research is to find if resistance spreads through
air from European sewage treatment plants. Researchers are going to let
treatment plant employees carry air samplers. They will also study their bacterial
flora and flora people who live very close and farther away, and see if there
seems to be a connection to the treatment plants.
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