Persistence of Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment and Implications for Global Public Health

Dear colleague,

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major challenge that poses a serious threat to global health and is negatively impacting progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, resistant infections claim ~700,000 deaths every year. The global resistance-associated mortality is estimated to top 10 million people per year in 2050, at a cost of US$300 million due to premature deaths and up to US$100 trillion lost from the global economy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted the increased threat associated with the continuously emerging antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs). This is also accompanied by the paucity of new antibacterial drugs being developed. The challenges of AMR are complex and multifaceted, particularly because the drivers of AMR exist and are interlinked between different ecologies, including humans, animals, plants, food, and the environment (e.g., soil, air, and water). These allow for the movement and persistence of ARBs and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) among these ecologies, which enhance the dissemination of AMR. This Special Issue invites submissions that comprehensively address the contribution of environmental factors to the emergence, maintenance, and dissemination of ARBs globally.    

These include but are not limited to:

1. Studying the molecular and epidemiological basis of the survival of ARBs;
2. ARGs that exist naturally in soil, natural waters, sediments etc.;
3. Persistence dynamics of antimicrobial residues, metals, ARGs, and phages, and their potential role in transferring resistant determinants between environmental and pathogenic bacteria;
4. Wastewaters, particularly hospital wastewater (enriched in antibiotic residues, ARBs, and microbial genomes);
5. Mass-gathering settings; 
6. The use of holistic approaches (e.g., One Health and metagenomics).

Dr. Moataz Abd El Ghany
Guest Editor

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