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Urban informal settlements as hotspots of antimicrobial resistance and the need to curb environmental transmission

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing public health challenge that is expected to disproportionately burden lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the coming decades. Although the contributions of human and veterinary antibiotic misuse to this crisis are well-recognized, environmental transmission (via water, soil or food contaminated with human and animal faeces) has been given less attention as a global driver of AMR, especially in urban informal settlements in LMICs—commonly known as ‘shanty towns’ or ‘slums’. These settlements may be unique hotspots for environmental AMR transmission given: (1) the high density of humans, livestock and vermin living in close proximity; (2) frequent antibiotic misuse; and (3) insufficient drinking water, drainage and sanitation infrastructure. Here, we highlight the need for strategies to disrupt environmental AMR transmission in urban informal settlements. We propose that water and waste infrastructure improvements tailored to these settings should be evaluated for their effectiveness in limiting environmental AMR dissemination, lowering the community-level burden of antimicrobial-resistant infections and preventing antibiotic misuse. We also suggest that additional research is directed towards developing economic and legal incentives for evaluating and implementing water and waste infrastructure in these settings. Given that almost 90% of urban population growth will occur in regions predicted to be most burdened by the AMR crisis, there is an urgent need to build effective, evidence-based policies that could influence massive investments in the built urban environment in LMICs over the next few decades.

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Fig. 1: Environmental transmission of AMR in urban informal settlements.
Fig. 2: Ways improved water and sanitation services could reduce the burden of AMR in LMIC settings.

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Data availability

The Demographic Health Survey (DHS) datasets that support the findings of Table 1 are available from the DHS Program (https://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm).

Code availability

The code used to generate the country-level antibiotic consumption estimates presented in Table 1 is publicly available on Github via Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3802123).

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Acknowledgements

M.L.N. and M.C.M. were supported by the Thrasher Research Foundation during the writing of this manuscript. Unpublished survey data from Nairobi presented in Table 1 was collected by a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (no. OPP1200651). Unpublished survey data from Peru was collected by a project funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI108695-01A1). We thank the study respondents for their participation.

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A.J.P., S.J.M., T.R.J. and M.L.N. developed the concept. R.H.G., M.J.P., M.S., S.M.N., J.S. and A.J.P. collected the data. A.J.P., S.J.M., T.R.J. and M.L.N. wrote the first draft. A.J.P., T.R.J., J.S. and M.L.N. designed the figures. M.L.N., S.J.M., M.C.M., R.H.G., M.J.P., M.S., P.T., S.M.N., J.K., J.S., M.A.I., T.R.J. and A.J.P. contributed to the literature search and reviewed the manuscript at all stages.

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Correspondence to Amy J. Pickering.

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Nadimpalli, M.L., Marks, S.J., Montealegre, M.C. et al. Urban informal settlements as hotspots of antimicrobial resistance and the need to curb environmental transmission. Nat Microbiol 5, 787–795 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0722-0

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