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COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance: A cross-study
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This review explores how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated antimicrobial resistance through increased antibiotic use, widespread disinfectant application, and massive volumes of plastic personal protective equipment waste. Researchers found that pandemic-related microplastic pollution creates additional surfaces for resistant bacteria to colonize and exchange resistance genes. The study highlights the intersection of pandemic waste management and the global antibiotic resistance crisis.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is emerging as a severe concern due to the escalating instances of resistant human pathogens encountered by health workers. Consequently, there is a shortage of antibiotics to treat Multidrug Resistance (MDR) and Extensively Drug Resistance (XDR) patients. The primary cause of AMR is the vast array of anthropogenic disturbances in natural microfauna brought about by the extensive use of antibiotics. Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has crashed antibiotic stewardship and single-handedly increased the global usage of antibiotics, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and biocide, causing a ripple effect in the existing global AMR problem. This surge in antibiotic usage has escalated the residual antibiotics reaching Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) from pharmaceutical companies, health care centers, and domestic settings. Ultimately the natural water bodies receiving their effluents will have higher concentrations of emerging contaminants as the WWTPs cannot remove the Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) completely. Furthermore, increased biocides usage will increase AMR by co-resistance, and increasing plastics will turn into microplastics and get converted to plastisphere, which will further enhance its propagation. Therefore, it is crucial to curb antibiotic usage, implement antibiotic stewardship dynamically; and, ameliorate the present condition of WWTPs to remove residual PPCPs efficiently. The need of the hour is to address the grave threat of AMR, which is loitering silently; if not the mankind will endure more affliction hereafter.
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Microplastic pollution interaction with disinfectant resistance genes: research progress, environmental impacts, and potential threats
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This review examines how microplastics serve as carriers for bacteria that develop resistance to disinfectants, a concern that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic as disinfectant use surged. Researchers found that microorganisms on microplastic surfaces can exchange genetic material more readily, accelerating the spread of disinfectant resistance genes. The study warns that the interaction between microplastic pollution and antimicrobial resistance represents an underappreciated environmental and public health concern.
COVID-19 pandemic and antimicrobial resistance in developing countries
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This review examined how the COVID-19 pandemic increased antimicrobial drug use and resistance in developing countries, highlighting that improper waste disposal, hospital effluents, and microplastics acting as vectors for antibiotic-resistant organisms compound resistance risks in lower-income settings that already lack diagnostic capacity and infection control infrastructure.
Selection for antimicrobial resistance in the plastisphere
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This review examines how microplastics in the environment may contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance by providing surfaces where bacteria, antibiotics, and resistant genes converge. Researchers describe several mechanisms by which the microbial communities living on microplastics, known as the plastisphere, could accelerate horizontal gene transfer of resistance traits. The study highlights an emerging concern at the intersection of plastic pollution and the global antimicrobial resistance crisis.
Determining the Contribution of Micro/Nanoplastics to Antimicrobial Resistance: Challenges and Perspectives
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This review examines how microplastics in the environment serve as surfaces where antibiotic-resistant bacteria can grow and exchange resistance genes, potentially worsening the global antimicrobial resistance crisis. Researchers found that the unique surface properties of micro- and nanoplastics create favorable conditions for the spread of antibiotic resistance genes among microorganisms. The study highlights that microplastic pollution and antibiotic resistance are interconnected environmental health challenges that may need to be addressed together.
Prevalence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, microplastics and co-infecting microbes in the post-COVID-19 era and its implications on antimicrobial resistance and potential endocrine disruptive effects
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This review examines how the COVID-19 pandemic increased environmental contamination from pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics, all of which can promote antibiotic resistance and disrupt hormones. The surge in mask use, sanitizer disposal, and medication contributed to higher levels of these pollutants in waterways. The combination of microplastics with pharmaceutical residues creates a compounding threat where plastics can carry drug-resistant bacteria and hormone-disrupting chemicals into water supplies.
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