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Hospital wastewater releases deadly superbugs directly into the environment

• http://www.naturalnews.com

(NaturalNews) Nearly all wastewater samples tested as part of a new study on "superbugs" were found to be contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to reports. Scientists, publishing their work in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, found that, among 11 sites tested throughout France, 96 percent of wastewater samples contained antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli bacteria.

The same is likely true of water supplies elsewhere, as effluent becomes increasingly contaminated with bacteria that have built up resistance to even the strongest antibiotics. Wastewater, not only from hospitals, where superbugs are increasingly prevalent, but also from municipal treatment plants, is teeming with the critters, which could pose a public health threat.

Xavier Bertrand and his colleagues from the University of Franche-Comte in Besancon, France, decided to investigate the purity of wastewater, even after it has been treated, to look for superbugs. They collected water samples from 11 sites throughout the Besancon wastewater network, two of which contained wastewater from university hospitals. Some of the water was also collected from the city and from rainwater.

Wastewater from livestock farming was purposely excluded in order to assess superbug prevalence in other water sources.

After testing all the samples, the team found that every single one contained some form of E. coli. Of these, 96 percent contained antibiotic-resistant forms of E. coli. And interestingly enough, the average number of individual E. coli in city wastewater was found to be more than twice that of hospital wastewater, which came as somewhat of a surprise.

"These multi-drug resistant bacteria are now the most frequently isolated ones in French hospitals, and in many countries," stated Bertrand about the results in an email to Reuters. "The extent to which the discharge of (antibiotic-resistant E. coli) into the environment contributes to its global spread remains uncertain."


 


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