Thursday, March 28, 2024
Advertisement
  1. You Are At:
  2. News
  3. Lifestyle
  4. Antibiotics can adversely affect microbes: Study

Antibiotics can adversely affect microbes: Study

Use of antibiotics can have both negative and positive impacts on human body. This may in its turn significantly impact people's lives around the world, said a research.

India TV Lifestyle Desk Edited by: India TV Lifestyle Desk New Delhi Published on: July 26, 2017 17:29 IST
antibiotics
Representative image for antibiotics

Although antibiotics prevent bacterial infections, they may adversely harm microbes that are essential to a healthy environment, a study has warned.

When people take antibiotics, their bodies break down and metabolise only a portion of the drugs. The rest is excreted and enters wastewater. 

As wastewater treatment plants are not designed to fully remove antibiotic or other pharmaceutical compounds, many of these compounds reach natural systems where they could accumulate and harm the "good" microbes. That's a big concern, the researchers said, because many microbial species found in the environment are beneficial, playing important roles in natural cycles of nutrients, primary production and climate regulation. 

Some microbes also degrade organic contaminants, such as pesticides.

"The amount of antibiotics is very, very low -- there are normally nanograms per litre of these molecules found in natural environments," said Paola Grenni, a microbial ecologist at the National Research Council's Water Research Institute in Italy. 

"But the antibiotics and also other pharmaceuticals can have an effect even in low concentrations, the so-called environmental side-effects," Grenni added. The release of antibiotics into natural systems is a "real-life experiment" with consequences that aren't yet fully known. 

Hence, it's important for nations to work to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and the release of those antibiotics into the environment, the researchers suggested in the paper published in Microchemical Journal. 

Efforts should also be made to equip wastewater treatment plants for removal of those compounds and to devise methods to improve the degradation of antibiotics once they reach natural environments. 

Members of the public can help by taking care to use antibiotics only when they are truly needed, and by disposing of expired medications properly, the study said.

For more lifestyle news, follow our Facebook page

(With IANS Inputs)

Advertisement

Read all the Breaking News Live on indiatvnews.com and Get Latest English News & Updates from Lifestyle

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement