River water samples were taken from 32 locations around the basin of Chaophraya River and its four major tributaries in Thailand to investigate resistance ratios of Escherichia coli isolates to eight antibiotic agents of amoxicillin, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, tetracycline, doxytetracycline, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, norfloxacin and ofloxacin. Principal component analysis was performed to characterize resistance patterns of the samples. Relevancy of the obtained principal components with urban land use and fecal contamination of the river were examined. The ratio of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is likely to increase when urban land use near the sampling site exceeds a certain ratio. The resistance ratio to fluoroquinolones tends to be high in a highly populated area. Meanwhile, no significant contribution of fecal contamination was found to increase the resistance ratio. These results suggest that an antibiotic-resistance ratio is dependent on conditions of local urbanization rather than the upstream conditions, and that the major sources of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the Chaophraya River basin are possibly point sources located in the urban area which contains a high ratio of resistant bacteria.

In viral respiratory infections, bacterial co-pathogens are widely known to co-infect, and they significantly increase the morbidity and mortality rate. During the influenza season, the advent of 2019-nCoV (novel coronavirus) has led to the widespread use of oral and intravenous antibiotics and inhibitors of neuraminidase enzyme. Owing to causes such as extended intubation, the ubiquitous use of intrusive catheters, and compromised host immunity, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients are at heightened risk of secondary bacterial and fungal infections, leading to the difficulty in their treatment. Apart from the pandemic, the primary risk is a likely surge in multidrug resistance. In this work, we evaluated the coalescence of present co-infection alongside the COVID-19 and post-pandemic antimicrobial resistance due to high ongoing drug use for the treatment of COVID-19. We found that while there is currently limited evidence of bacterial infections in COVID-19, available proof supports the restricted use of antibiotics from an antibiotic stewardship viewpoint, primarily upon entry. Paramount attempts should be made to collect sputum and blood culture samples as well as pneumococcal urinary antigen monitoring in order to endorse stringent antibiotic usage. For antimicrobial stewardship, inflammatory markers like procalcitonin have been added, but such biomarkers are typically upraised in COVID-19. Antimicrobials cannot be completely removed in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and once they enter the water environment, possesses great risk of inducing resistance to drugs in microbes. Hence, their prescription and administrations should be regulated and alternate solutions such as vaccines, preventive measures and personal hygiene should be given top priority. It is imperative to establish an antimicrobial strategy discrete to COVID-19, as this pandemic has caused outbreak of numerous other associated diseases and has the potential to drive microbial resistance. Coordinated plans are essential for this at the citizen, health-care and policy levels.

The aspects of water security mainly govern by the availability and the quality of the water. As foreseen, use of portable fresh water for landscape irrigation can be a problem in the future. This research study was carried out with objectives of characterizing the raw kitchen wastewater (KWW), designing a domestic level filter for treating KWW and evaluating the removal efficiency of newly designed filter for reuse purpose. Four combinations of treatment systems were used namely in an order, sand and gravel layer, sand and bricks, sand and bricks with a coco peat layer and sand, bricks, coco peat and activated charcoal units for filtering. Raw kitchen wastewater samples were collected three times per day and made a composite sample by mixing equal proportion of each. Water quality parameters were measured before and after treatment of the KWW and compared with the Central Environmental Authority, Sri Lanka (CEA) standards. The average pH, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and oil content in raw KWW was significantly higher than CEA standards. Based on results, raw KWW cannot be reuse for irrigation and it requires adequate treatment prior irrigation. The quality of filtrate from treatment system four resulted with the mean values of pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, total dissolved solids, COD and oil content and respectively quantitative figures were 7.2 ,0.65 mS cm -1 , 29.5 0 C, 230.1 mg L -1 , 365 mg L -1 and 2.8 g L -1 .The combination of sand, bricks, coco peat and activated charcoal filter filtrated effluent was within the CEA standards, which can be reuse for irrigation.