Superbugs catch a ride on air pollution particles. Is that bad news for people?
Antibiotic resistant microbes from the soil, from aquaculture, from sewage and from hospitals can hook onto air pollution particles. A new study looks at the implications.
In a Ukrainian hospital, wounded soldiers languish with stubborn bacterial infections. In Liberia, a young mother's surgery wound refuses to heal after a C-section. Superbugs hiding in eyedrops imported from India cause multiple deaths and many more cases of blindness.
Worldwide, the toll of drug-resistant infections has only been growing. A study published last year found that 1.27 million people died in 2019 from infections resistant to antimicrobial drugs. The annual death toll could reach 10 million by 2050, according to the United Nations.
Now highlights a surprising potential vector for the spread of antimicrobial
