The surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in wastewater using wastewater- based epidemiology approaches

Abstract Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the top ten global public health threat. Many countries have recognized the societal and economic burden of AMR. The AMR has reduced the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapies and this results to high mortality, morbidity, and health care expenditure. Like all the other developing countries, South Africa (SA) falls under the same ambiguous management system of antimicrobials. A lot of research has been focused on the global public health threat “AMR”, however, studies on AMR in wastewater are limited. This paper highlights the imperatives of surveying the AMR pathogens in wastewater since wastewater are consecrated as hotspots for the dissemination and propagation of AMR genes. The RNA was extracted from the untreated wastewater samples that were collected from the Tshwane district in Gauteng province, SA. The metagenomic analysis was proposed for the analysis and profiling of the AMR genes present in the wastewater. A total of 39 AMR Gene Families and 39 AMR Drug Classes were detected across 17 samples. The metagenomic approach that is discussed in this paper demonstrate the importance of wastewater surveillance as it can be used as an early detecting system for communicable diseases as well as for monitoring wastewater.