NUI Galway’s Antimicrobial Resistance and Microbial Ecology Research Group are launching the EPA-funded PIER (Public Health Impact of Exposure to antibiotic Resistance in recreational waters) project which will look at whether people who regularly use Irish seas, lakes or rivers for recreation are more at risk of picking up antibiotic resistant “superbugs”.
The project team hope to recruit two groups of people to take part in the PIER project and are calling on all citizens who love the water to visit the PIER website www.nuigalway.ie/pier to find out more and sign up! Regular water users, along with those who seldom use the water for recreation are invited to participate.
Prof Dearbháile Morris, Principal Investigator on the PIER project says: “In healthy people antibiotic resistant bacteria behave very similarly to other common bugs, they live harmlessly on the skin, in the nose or in the bowel. This is called colonisation. As long as a bug stays on the skin or in the bowel, it usually does not cause a problem.
However, once a superbug gets into a wound, into the bladder or into the blood, it can cause an infection that can be difficult to treat. This mostly happens in sick or vulnerable people with weaker immune systems, such as those in intensive care, the very old or the very young, and special antibiotics are then required for treatment, as ordinary antibiotics do not work.”
Professor Morris continues “Unfortunately, superbugs can transfer easily from healthy colonised people to vulnerable people. The more people that are colonised with antibiotic resistant bugs, the higher the risk that these bugs will spread to vulnerable people and cause serious infection”.
Dr Liam Burke, Co-Investigator on the PIER project says: “Some superbugs are now very common in the environment due to increased antibiotic use in humans and animals and the release of sewage, manure and effluent containing antibiotics and antibiotic resistant superbugs, which can end up in our lakes, rivers and seas. Although bathing waters are routinely tested for some bacteria, they are not tested for antibiotic resistant bacteria, so we don’t really know to what extent they are present. PIER will look into whether people who regularly use Irish waters for recreation are at risk of becoming colonised with superbugs.”
For further details, contact Professor Dearbháile Morris at dearbhaile.morris@nuigalway.ie