Why in news?
Researchers have found out that superbugs can be transmitted from plants to humans.
What are Superbugs?
- These are strains of some bacteria which withstand most antibiotics and can cause multiple health problems such as pneumonia and several other infections.
What is antimicrobial resistance?
- Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are present in the natural environment (water, soil and air) and in wildlife, in humans and in food.
- They will spread from food of animal origin and get transmitted from person to person and between person and animals.
- The use of antibiotics for viral infections, such as flu, inadequately treated wastewater with resistant bacteria mixed in the environment often increases the antimicrobial resistance load.
- The threat posed to global public health, food safety and an economic burden by antibiotic resistant infections is huge.
- With the ingestion of infected vegetables, superbugs can hide in the gut (colonizing) for a long-time during escape and infect asymptomatically.
