Apparently, antibiotic-resistant bacteria mainly enter the environment through hospital waste water.
This is what a study by researchers at Liebig University suggests.
The scientists from the Institute for Applied Microbiology found bacteria of the genus Acinetobacter in samples from urban and rural regions.
However, they were only able to detect multi-resistant strains in municipal sewage treatment plants that also treat hospital wastewater.
Can survive even without oxygen
The microbiologists also found that the germs survived treatment in biogas plants and digestion towers.
This is astonishing in that Acinetobacter is actually dependent on oxygen.
However, in the absence of the gas, the bacteria can apparently use polyphosphate as an energy source - a phenomenon that has already been noted in connection with the biological phosphorus removal from wastewater.
Further investigations will now clarify how the resistant bacteria behave in treated wastewater and sewage sludge and how they exchange resistance with other bacteria after they have entered the environment.
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, around 35,000 people died in the EU between 2016 and 2020 from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Here is the study