Surveillance of two Noida drains for assessing the presence of carbapenem-resistant ESKAPE bacteria

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major public health concern for clinicians all over the world. It occurs due to careless consumption of antibiotics and not completing the prescribed regimen. In India, environmental factors such as pollution, lack of cleanliness and hygiene also exacerbate the problem. If efforts are not put into combating this threat it is predicted to have a devastating impact on the economy and will be a deterrent in achieving United Nation’s sustainable development goals. Regional and periodical characterization of microbial resistome is essential for timely treatment decisions by doctors and prevention of the spread of drug-resistant infections. However, obtaining AMR data from clinical infections requires ethical clearances, and may not even provide a complete and accurate spectrum of all relevant AMR genes (as microbiota of healthy persons may have different AMR genes). Since both domestic and industrial waste contributes to the spread and development of antimicrobial resistance, identification of multidrug-resistant strains in untreated sewage (that provides testing samples from mostly healthy population) for surveillance and prediction of AMR may be more reliable, ethically acceptable and economically feasible approach.