<p>Newly vaccinated travelers enjoying a return to trips abroad may find a drug-resistant "superbug" hitching a ride in their gut, a study in Genome Medicine says.</p>.<p>US and Dutch researchers studying the effects of travel on the bacteria in our stomachs were unnerved to find that a third of their subjects carried a bacterial gene resistant to "last resort" antibiotics for infections such as pneumonia and meningitis.</p>.<p>"These findings provide strong support that international travel risks spreading antimicrobial resistance globally," said Alaric D'Souza, a researcher studying microbial genomics and ecology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis who co-authored the study published this week.</p>.<p>The team, which studied the feces of 190 Dutch travelers before and after travel to parts of Africa and Asia, found international travelers to be "reservoirs and spreaders" of drug-resistant superbugs.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/pfizer-to-test-covid-19-vaccine-in-larger-group-of-children-below-12-995302.html" target="_blank"><strong>Read | Pfizer to test Covid-19 vaccine in larger group of children below 12</strong></a></p>.<p>When the travelers returned home, their fecal test kits revealed a "significant amount" of antimicrobial resistant, or AMR, genes that do not respond to commonly used antibiotics.</p>.<p>The genes of these drug-resistant "superbugs" usually develop naturally over millions of years when exposed to antibiotics produced by other bacteria in their environment.</p>.<p>But the overuse of antibiotics by humans for medical and agricultural purposes is accelerating this process.</p>.<p>The study warns this trend threatens 70 years of progress in treating infectious diseases caused by bacteria.</p>.<p>Researchers found the resistant genes were "destination-specific," with certain types localized to specific regions.</p>.<p>They expressed the most concern about travelers in their study who returned from Southeast Asia with the mcr-1 gene, which resists colistin, an antibiotic used when other drug therapies fail.</p>.<p>"It is vital that we address AMR in lower income countries with high resistance rates and low public health funds," D'Souza said.</p>.<p>"This global approach may not only help the respective countries, but it could also benefit others by reducing the international spread of resistance genes."</p>.<p>The authors concluded that understanding how these genes spread can help international public health interventions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.</p>
<p>Newly vaccinated travelers enjoying a return to trips abroad may find a drug-resistant "superbug" hitching a ride in their gut, a study in Genome Medicine says.</p>.<p>US and Dutch researchers studying the effects of travel on the bacteria in our stomachs were unnerved to find that a third of their subjects carried a bacterial gene resistant to "last resort" antibiotics for infections such as pneumonia and meningitis.</p>.<p>"These findings provide strong support that international travel risks spreading antimicrobial resistance globally," said Alaric D'Souza, a researcher studying microbial genomics and ecology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis who co-authored the study published this week.</p>.<p>The team, which studied the feces of 190 Dutch travelers before and after travel to parts of Africa and Asia, found international travelers to be "reservoirs and spreaders" of drug-resistant superbugs.</p>.<p><a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/pfizer-to-test-covid-19-vaccine-in-larger-group-of-children-below-12-995302.html" target="_blank"><strong>Read | Pfizer to test Covid-19 vaccine in larger group of children below 12</strong></a></p>.<p>When the travelers returned home, their fecal test kits revealed a "significant amount" of antimicrobial resistant, or AMR, genes that do not respond to commonly used antibiotics.</p>.<p>The genes of these drug-resistant "superbugs" usually develop naturally over millions of years when exposed to antibiotics produced by other bacteria in their environment.</p>.<p>But the overuse of antibiotics by humans for medical and agricultural purposes is accelerating this process.</p>.<p>The study warns this trend threatens 70 years of progress in treating infectious diseases caused by bacteria.</p>.<p>Researchers found the resistant genes were "destination-specific," with certain types localized to specific regions.</p>.<p>They expressed the most concern about travelers in their study who returned from Southeast Asia with the mcr-1 gene, which resists colistin, an antibiotic used when other drug therapies fail.</p>.<p>"It is vital that we address AMR in lower income countries with high resistance rates and low public health funds," D'Souza said.</p>.<p>"This global approach may not only help the respective countries, but it could also benefit others by reducing the international spread of resistance genes."</p>.<p>The authors concluded that understanding how these genes spread can help international public health interventions, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.</p>