Thebacteria Escherichia Coli antibiotic resistant ismuch more abundant in towns located next to roadsthan in rural villages located far from these roads, indicating that roads play an important role in the spread or containment of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, known assuperbacterias, according to a new study.
To reach this conclusion, Joe Eisenberg, professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan (USA), has worked with researchers from the University of San Francisco in Quito (Ecuador) and Trinity College (UK) during five years in a region in northwestern Ecuador, studying theE. Coliantibiotic resistant and the common combination of two antibiotics: ampicillin and sulfamethoxazole. According to Eisenberg, in addition to the use of antibiotics, there are “other important factors that affect the spread of resistance to antibiotics and the rate at which new strains are introduced, specifically themovements of people entering and leaving a region, as well aspoor water quality and sanitationthat allow the transmission of antibiotic resistant strains. “And both factors, he clarifies, are affected by the presence of roads.
For these bacteria, the administration of antibiotics amplifies the bacteria resistant to the antibiotic that already exists in the individual, killing theE. Colinot resistant, which stimulates the superbug strain to multiply and colonize the intestine. The superbugE. Coliit becomes the dominant strain and this increases the likelihood that it will be passed from one person to another. Transmission occurs when, for example, an infected person contaminates food they cook or contaminates a water source, and an uninfected person is subsequently exposed to contaminated food or water. A) Yes,roads affect health not only because they provide more access to antibioticsbut also because they create different levels of water sanitation and hygiene, as published by Eisenberg and his colleagues in the latest issue of the magazineJournal of the Royal Society Interface.
