By: Alonso Trevino IV
While large bodies of
freshwater only accounts for about 0.3% of the world’s entire freshwater
sources, in retrospect they have for centuries proved to be vital sources of
drinking water and entertainment. Whether the reason is to consume or simply
enjoy, an increasingly hazardous situation has been simmering in these great
lakes and rivers. Due to the ease by which human interaction disrupts the natural flow of these bodies of water (by way of pollution and sewage disposal)
new developments seem to indicate the increase in antibiotic-resistant
microbial organisms within the waters, bacteria which is consequently making
its way into the mainstream, so to speak. Escherichia
coli, Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Salmonella spp., Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Vibrio parahemolyticus, Aeromonas hydrophila, are some of the
organisms, to name a few, that have recently begun to mutate into potentially
more harmful micro bacteria. This conamtination mainly caused by animal and
human fecal matter has made this an issue difficult to control and in the span
of a few years, this issue has grown due to hormones used in animal feed and
hospital waste. These organisms are known to be opportunistic pathogens. Some
were found to be resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics like ampicillin and other
antibiotics used commonly in any setting, other organisms were even found to
resist a multitude of drugs. Meanwhile, we are sitting ducks in a world that
continues to change for the worse, it is crucial that some regenerative plan
begin before it is too late.
Figure 1. As seen in the above
graph, the frequency of bacterial resistance to an antibiotic is very high which
in turn, can affect not only therapeutic medical interventions but make it
easier for certain bacteria’s to be contracted. The graph reveals that plasmid
transfer is a very high possibility, a possibility which can quickly and more
easily attack human cells.
Original Article:
Mudaliar, N., Kanojia,
N., Shaikh, K., & Rathod, S. (2019). DETECTION OF DRUG RESISTANT ORGANISMS
FROM NATURAL WATER BODIES
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