Scientists call for a global network to track antimicrobial resistance through sewage samples

The authors of a new perspective piece argue for countries to routinely sequence DNA from sewage to keep track of how antimicrobial resistance is spreading in a given population. While sewage samples have been used to track opioid and alcohol use, current efforts to track AMR using sewage have been limited to specific research groups, while other AMR surveillance has been limited to hospital settings. This includes small sample sizes, with tracking of only a small set of resistance genes. A global network to track resistance, the scientists suggest, would instead capture all possible resistance genes. If a global coordination center handles and processes the data from the sequencing, these checks could be done on a routine basis. Such a network is essential, they write, for “assessing the impacts of interventions, identifying new kinds of resistance, and supporting investigation of (international) outbreaks of resistant pathogens.”