Aquatic environments are identified as an ideal setting for acquisition and dissemination of antibiotic resistance, and human exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in aquatic environments may pose an additional health risk. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) has been suggested as a suitable method to evaluate and quantify this health risk. However, information about the exposure to ARB and ARGs in aquatic environments is lacking for many scenarios and dose-response models regarding the ARB infections are not developed yet. This review summarizes the current knowledge regarding the ARB and ARGs in aquatic environments and highlights the challenging questions remaining to be answered to better forecast the health risks caused by ARB and ARGs in water environments. The questions include what are the missing information needed to quantify the human health risks caused by exposing to ARB and ARGs in aquatic environments? what are the suitable markers to evaluate the ARB/ARGs contamination in aquatic environments? how frequently do the ARG selection and propagation occur in aquatic environments? and are there any unknown hot spots? Studies on the above topics will contribute to better management of antibiotic resistance dissemination in water environments and its risks on human health. Graphical Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 RNA is excreted in feces of most patients, therefore viral load in wastewater can be used as a surveillance tool to develop an early warning system to help and manage future pandemics. We collected wastewater from 24 random locations at Bangkok city center and 26 nearby suburbs from July to December 2020. SARS-CoV-2 RNA copy numbers were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in wastewater from both the city center and suburbs. Except for July, there were no significant differences in copy numbers between the city center and suburbs. Between October and November, a sharp rise in copy number was observed in both places followed by two to three times increase in December, related to SARS-CoV-2 cases reported for same month. Our study provided the first dataset related to SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in the wastewater of Bangkok. Our results suggest that wastewater could be used as a complementary source for detecting viral RNA and predicting upcoming outbreaks and waves.