The analyzes showed that for every 10% increase in air pollution, antibiotic resistance increased by an average of 1.1%.
Air pollution and antibiotic resistance are the two biggest threats to public health right now, says Chinese researcher Hong Chen. He discovered that resistance to antibiotics also increases in areas where a lot of air pollution is measured.
Of study by Hong Chen, a professor at Zhejiang University in China, took two decades to complete and took place in more than a hundred different countries.
The research revealed that PM2.5, the harmful 2.5 micrometre particles in polluted air, can contain resistant bacteria and enter people’s airways through inhalation. PM2.5 is emitted by industry, traffic and wood burning, among other things.
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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.
But air pollution is also a threat that we should not take lightly, says Chen. After all, exposure to polluted air has been linked to an increased risk of asthma, heart disease and lung cancer. According to the researchers, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread through the air, for example because hospitals, farms and sewage treatment plants emit them.
“Antibiotic resistance and air pollution are each in their own way some of the biggest threats to public health,” Chen told Ynetnews.com. ‘Until now we didn’t have a clear picture of the link between the two, 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.’
Link with air pollution
In total, the researchers collected a total of 11.5 million research samples between 2000 and 2018. The analyzes showed that for every 10% increase in air pollution, antibiotic resistance increased by an average of 1.1%.
Although antibiotics save lives, experts warned more than a decade ago that the widespread use of antibiotics would lead to resistance in bacteria.
The connection 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 resistance in bacteria. 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 United States and Eastern Europe, children receive an average of 1 to 1.5 antibiotic treatments per year, while the Scandinavian countries show the sharpest decline in antibiotic use. There, children receive an average of 0.5 or even fewer treatments per year.
2023-08-11 07:48:03
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