Prevention is always a good Policy

An increasingly common problem that many institutions of health have to deal with is the increase of bacterial pathogens that have become resistant to antibiotics.  Creating new antibiotics to deal with the these Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (ARB) has become difficult, so treating sites that might carry ARB could help in impeding other populations of bacteria from inheriting there antibiotic Resistance.  In a study by Qing-bin Yuan and his Colleagues, The option of treating municipal waste water with five different biological treatments was explored.  The treatments are carried out via Rectors that produce either an anaerobic environment or a biological filter.  The waste water that has been treated was then screened for heterotrophic antibiotic-resistance bacteria and genes associated with Antibiotic Resistance.  The Article concludes that while all the biological treatment reactors did some good in preventing the transfer of Antibiotic Resistance bacteria, some were more effective than others.  This research is important as any waste water will inevitably sent into the sewer before being processed and released in to sources of drinking water.  Preventing ARB from being released into our drinking water may help delay the need for new Antibiotics from being developed.  

Figure 1:  A list of all the reactors used to treat the municipal waste water (Yuan et al, 2016)

Original Article:

Yuan QB, Guo MT, Wei WW, Yang J. (2016). Reductions of bacterial antibiotic resistance through five biological treatment processes treated municipal Wastewater.  Environmental Science Pollution Research 23:19495-19503