Resistant germs can cause life-threatening infections in hospitals. British researchers have now proven such super-germ genes far from civilization: in the Arctic. They were probably spread by birds.
On some topics, the messages of science are like a mantra. Antibiotic resistance is one such: the World Health Organization (WHO) regularly warns of the health risks posed by the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. The list of antibiotics that can effectively fight bacteria is getting shorter and shorter, according to WHO communications. According to statistics, up to 700,000 people die each year from infections with such super germs. Ascending trend.
From India to the Arctic
Whether and to what extent the responsible resistance genes spread in the environment is not yet clear enough. An investigation by David Graham of the University of Newcastle is now a matter of concern: The microbiologist and his colleagues have detected the gene blaNDM-1 in Arctic soil samples. The hereditary factor makes bacteria immune to a range of antibiotics, especially carbapenems – one of the last weapons that doctors still have to treat resistant bacteria.
This is remarkable because the gene was first discovered in a hospital in New Delhi in 2008. Two years later, researchers pointed it out in water samples of the Indian metropolis. And now the gene has surfaced at the other end of the world, in the Kongsfjord northwest of the island of Spitsbergen.
In the belly of birds
How did it get there? Graham sees two possible pathways: „Animals receive such resistance genes through their food. I suspect that they were transported in the body from birds to the Arctic – where they then got into the soil via the bird droppings. „It can not be ruled out that humans were also involved. One and a half kilometers from the examination site lies an international research station. „Perhaps the resistance genes have also been released into the environment via the effluents of the King’s Bay Research polar station,“ says Graham. „Or it’s a combination of both. We’re trying to find out now. “
The Kongsfjord in the Arctic Ocean
The bacteria in the Arctic soil have the genetic potential to resist antibiotics. But that alone does not make them dangerous super germs. Nevertheless, this finding sheds light on the mobility of such hereditary factors: If bacteria rapidly change resistance genes and they travel across half the world within a few years, then one can assume that this will also be the case in other places and with other resistances.
Global spread by human excrement
Anyway, the yearly warnings of WHO are given new urgency by Graham’s study. The previous debate on this topic is one-sided, criticized the microbiologist in conversation with science.ORF.at, it was not just about hospitals and the prescription of drugs.
„Of course we have to restrict the use of antibiotics. That is essential – but only part of the solution. What we also need is a rethinking of wastewater management. 2.5 billion people on earth have no access to sanitary facilities, many of which have to do their bowel movements outdoors. This is the main reason antimicrobial resistance is released into the environment. We have to do something about that. “
Children in India walk along a dirt road
Without sanitary facilities, the resistance quickly reaches the environment
The study, published in the journal „Environment International“, also contains a good message. The British researchers found some promising starting points for novel antibiotics in the Arctic soil bacteria.
These would also be of interest to pharmaceutical companies – provided that the development of new drugs could make money. At the moment this is hardly the case, because new antibiotics often lose their effectiveness within a few months. Which closes the circle: If the spread of the resistances could be contained, also the industry would invest in the development of new active substances.
