A review on antibiotics in the environment, resistance in microbes, impact on human health and treatment and future strategies for tackling the global problem

Abstract

The introduction of antibiotics was a blessing to human civilization as the antibiotics saved several million human and animal lives. Due to overuse and misuse of antibiotics by humans in the healthcare, and agriculture sectors, the residues of the antibiotics were reported in all the segments of the environment (surface water, groundwater, river water, soil, sediments, wastewater effluent, hospital effluent, livestock, fish, fruits, vegetables and milk) from ng to mg/L or kg that results in the rapid increase in the number of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Antibiotic resistance has been listed by the World Health Organization before Covid 19 as one of the top 10 threats to human health globally. Though antibiotic resistance is inevitable it is mainly anthropogenic and is an important factor of increased healthcare costs, longer hospital stay stress on hospital beds and ICU and higher rates of morbidity and mortality. The invention of new antibiotics to cope the resistant bacterial infection is the need of the hour but as bacterial infections is not an ongoing process (have a lower return) unlike chronic diseases hypertension, and diabetes the pharmaceutical companies are not very interested in the inventions. This article discusses the antibiotics in the different compartments of the environment, the antibacterial mechanisms of the antibiotics, causes of development and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and mechanisms/methods to combat antibiotic resistance.