The Boston Globe published a letter from AMR Action Fund CEO Henry Skinner highlighting the persistent challenges combined sewage overflows, or CSOs, pose to the state. The letter notes that CSOs can drive antibiotic-resistant bacteria into local waterways and highlights evidence that resistant bacteria have been discovered in the Charles River and in waterways across Cape Cod.
These bacteria make infections harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat. Globally, bacterial antimicrobial resistance contributes to nearly 5 million deaths a year and imposes enormous costs on health care systems.
This is not a distant concern: Researchers at Boston University reported finding high levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in water samples collected from the Charles River, and MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution researchers have documented their presence throughout waterways on Cape Cod. Any discussion of acceptable sewage contamination should also account for the role waste water may play in the persistence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Read the full letter here.
