New Advances for Virginia Tech Antibiotics

According to Virginia Tech College of Engineering, when an antibiotic is eaten, only about 10% is metabolized, the other 90% leaves the entire body intact.
The concern many face are the agricultural areas, where excreted antibiotics enter to the rivers and streams via through human waste systems, animal feedings programs, etc.
Amy Pruden, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient, states, “…These areas are potential sources for resistance genes,” Prudent has also become an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. She continues to explain that once these antibiotic resistant genes enter into the rivers, they have a greater chance to merge with bacteria, becoming stronger viruses.
Pruden writes a published statement “…a critical health challenge of our time.” She and other members of environmental engineering at Virginia Tech design a study to test the waters of known sites for antibiotic resistant genes. The hope is, through their findings, they are able to find a difference between human and animal sources of the antibiotic resistance genes, finding the best attack is on treating these sites. Prudent clarifies further that decreasing the spread of antibiotic resistance can lengthen the success of available antibiotics. For more information, the Virginia Tech College website has posted their recent findings.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *