UN calls drug-resistant germs in the environment a ‘ticking time-bomb’
Nairobi — The UN warned on Tuesday of a ticking time-bomb of drug-resistant germs brewing in the natural environment, aided by humans dumping antibiotics and chemicals into the water and soil. If this continues, people will be at an even higher risk of contracting diseases, incurable with existing antibiotics, from swimming in the sea or other seemingly innocuous activities, a report warned. "Around the world, discharge from municipal, agricultural and industrial waste in the environment means it is common to find antibiotic concentrations in many rivers, sediments and soils. It is steadily driving the evolution of resistant bacteria," the investigation warned bluntly. "A drug that once protected our health is now in danger of very quietly destroying it." The report, entitled Frontiers 2017, was published at the UN Environment Assembly, the world’s paramount gathering on environmental matters. A well-known problem is misuse or over-prescription of drugs, which enables bacteria to de...
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