Antimicrobial Resistance: An Emerging Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Issue

This brief examines the emerging problem of antimicrobial resistance. As a result of decades of use and abuse, antibiotics, and other antimicrobial agents, their functional metabolites, antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes are common and widespread contaminants in water and other environmental media, including wastewater and human excreta used for agricultural or aquacultural purposes or discharged to the environment, where they can persist for long periods of time.