Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Impact of MDRs on COVID-19 Patients Among Developing Countries

This study examined how multi-drug resistant organisms are affecting COVID-19 patients in developing countries, where antibiotic misuse during the pandemic accelerated resistance spread. The analysis found that elevated antibiotic use during the COVID-19 pandemic intensified the clinical burden of drug-resistant infections in resource-limited settings.

2024 Coronaviruses
Article Tier 2

COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance: A cross-study

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.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 145 citations
Article Tier 2

The Role of COVID-19 on Antibiotics Resistance: a Review-based Study

This review examines the role of COVID-19 in accelerating antibiotic resistance, discussing how overuse of antibiotics during the pandemic increased selective pressure on bacteria. The authors review mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to secondary bacterial infections requiring antibiotic treatment. Antibiotic resistance is environmentally relevant because resistant genes are often co-located with microplastics in aquatic environments.

2023 Hamdard Journal of Pharmacy 1 citations
Article Tier 2

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

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.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Antibiotic Resistance: The Magnitude of the Problem and the Emerging Role of Hospital Wastewater

This review examines how microplastics in water can carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria and spread resistance genes, especially through hospital wastewater. Microplastics provide a surface where bacteria easily form colonies and share resistance genes, creating a potential threat to human health. The authors call for better wastewater management to reduce this emerging risk.

2023 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Planning for disposal of COVID-19 pandemic wastes in developing countries: a review of current challenges

Researchers review the acute challenges developing countries face in managing the surge of COVID-19-related medical waste, highlighting how pre-existing deficiencies in waste infrastructure, treatment capacity, and disposal practices create serious risks of accelerating viral spread and environmental contamination.

2021 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 42 citations
Article Tier 2

Risk of antimicrobial resistance spreading via food loss and waste.

This review found that food loss and waste can serve as a reservoir for antimicrobial resistance genes and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and that improper disposal — particularly in landfills contaminated with microplastics and heavy metals — accelerates the environmental spread of antimicrobial resistance.

2026 Infectious diseases of poverty
Article Tier 2

How microplastics and nanoplastics shape antibiotic resistance?

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics act as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes, facilitating their spread through environmental and biological systems by creating selective pressure and hosting microbial communities that exchange resistance determinants.

2022 Water Emerging Contaminants & Nanoplastics 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Combating antimicrobial resistance: the silent war

This review examines the growing global crisis of antimicrobial resistance, where bacteria become immune to antibiotics due to overuse in medicine and agriculture. Although focused on drug resistance, the paper is relevant to microplastic research because microplastics have been shown to harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria and facilitate the transfer of resistance genes in the environment, potentially making this public health crisis worse.

2024 Frontiers in Pharmacology 35 citations
Article Tier 2

El impacto de la resistencia a los antibióticos en el desarrollo sostenible

This Spanish-language review discusses antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a growing global public health crisis, examining how antibiotics spread through ecosystems and drive resistance in bacteria. While not primarily about microplastics, the paper is relevant because microplastics are known carriers of antibiotic resistance genes in aquatic environments. The authors call for a One Health approach to AMR that considers environmental reservoirs.

2021 Población y Salud en Mesoamérica 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Arising Challenges From Single-use Plastics and Personal Protective Equipment Through COVID-19 Pandemic in Waste Management System in Developing Countries

This review examines the waste management challenges posed by the surge in single-use plastics and personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in developing countries where infrastructure is limited. The authors analyzed published literature to highlight how the pandemic exacerbated plastic waste generation and identify gaps in policy and management capacity needed to address these emerging pollution streams.

2022 Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics: Disseminators of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogenic bacteria

This review examined the role of microplastics as carriers of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and pathogenic bacteria, analyzing how plastisphere biofilms concentrate and spread AMR through air, water, and soil environments. The evidence supports MPs as global vectors for antimicrobial resistance dissemination with implications for human health.

2025 Aquatic Toxicology
Article Tier 2

Flushed and Forgotten: Antimicrobial Resistance from Wastewater Perspective

This review examines antimicrobial resistance in wastewater streams, covering the role of microplastics as vectors for resistance genes and bacteria, and discussing treatment strategies to reduce the release of resistant organisms from wastewater facilities into aquatic environments.

2025 IntechOpen eBooks
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution interaction with disinfectant resistance genes: research progress, environmental impacts, and potential threats

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.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 4 citations
Article Tier 2

A review on the effect of micro- and nano-plastics pollution on the emergence of antimicrobial resistance

This review highlights how microplastics serve as breeding grounds for antimicrobial resistance genes, examining the overlooked interaction between plastic pollution and antibiotic resistance that poses combined threats to environmental and human health.

2022 Chemosphere 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Antidrug resistance in the Indian ambient waters of Ahmedabad during the COVID-19 pandemic

Researchers compared antibiotic resistance patterns in Escherichia coli isolated from ambient water in Ahmedabad, India before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding increased multi-drug resistance during the pandemic period, likely linked to elevated antibiotic consumption.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 45 citations
Article Tier 2

Dissemination Of Antibiotic Resistance Via Wastewater And Surface Water

This review examined how antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread through wastewater and surface water, noting that microplastics in wastewater can carry resistant bacteria into the environment. Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health crisis, and plastic pollution is one pathway accelerating its spread in waterways.

2021 Research Repository (Delft University of Technology)
Article Tier 2

Environmental drivers of antibiotic resistance: Synergistic effects of climate change, co-pollutants, and microplastics

This review examines how climate change, chemical pollutants, and microplastics work together to accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance, a growing global health crisis. Microplastics provide surfaces where bacteria form communities that exchange resistance genes, and as these plastics age in the environment, they become even better at absorbing other pollutants, creating hotspots that amplify drug resistance.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Antibiotic Resistance: Moving From Individual Health Norms to Social Norms in One Health and Global Health

This review argues that antibiotic resistance should be understood as a global pandemic requiring coordinated One Health and Global Health approaches, rather than just an individual patient concern. Researchers explain how resistant bacteria and resistance genes spread across humans, animals, food systems, water, and natural environments including those contaminated with microplastics. The study advocates for social norms and socioeconomic frameworks that address antibiotic resistance within the broader context of environmental sustainability.

2020 Frontiers in Microbiology 130 citations
Article Tier 2

The Microplastic-Antibiotic Resistance Connection

This review examined the link between microplastic pollution and antibiotic resistance, finding that microplastic surfaces in the environment selectively enrich antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes, creating hotspots that may amplify the spread of resistance far beyond clinical settings.

2021 Environmental contamination remediation and management 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Pharmaceutical Waste Generation and Handling on Environmental Health in Developing Countries: COVID – 19 Pandemic in Perspective!

This paper examines how pharmaceutical waste generation and handling during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated environmental health risks in developing countries, where inadequate waste management infrastructure led to increased contamination of soil and water.

2021 Journal of applied science and environmental management 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastisphere antibiotic resistance genes: A bird's-eye view on the plastic-specific diversity and enrichment

Microplastics in the environment act as surfaces for microbial communities called microplastispheres, which this review finds are enriched with antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The type of plastic, surrounding water chemistry, and co-occurring pollutants all influence which resistance genes accumulate, raising concern that microplastics could be spreading antibiotic resistance through aquatic environments worldwide.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 11 citations
Article Tier 2

The Role of the Environment (Water, Air, Soil) in the Emergence and Dissemination of Antimicrobial Resistance: A One Health Perspective

This review examines how water, soil, and air act as reservoirs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with microplastics highlighted as one of several agents that help spread drug-resistant genes across environments. The findings matter for human health because microplastics can carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria from wastewater and agricultural runoff into water supplies and food systems.

2025 Antibiotics 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Selective enrichment of antibiotic resistome and bacterial pathogens by aquatic microplastics

This review found that microplastics in aquatic environments selectively enrich antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resistance genes, and bacterial pathogens in their biofilms, making plastic debris a potential vector for spreading antimicrobial resistance.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 27 citations