Tag Archives: resistant pathogens

Europe – Impact of Anthropogenic Changes to Water on Human Pathogens

HPS

The journal ‘Eurosurveillance’ is inviting authors to submit papers for a special issue on the impact of anthropogenic changes to water on human pathogens and the epidemiology of infectious diseases and relevance for public health.

The submission deadline has been extended to 13 May 2015.

Water can act as a solvent for antimicrobials, antifungals, antivirals, pesticides, and heavy metals. The release of such substances in the water can lead to the development of respective resistance in pathogens or related vectors. The resistance can spread between pathogens (e.g. via plasmid exchange), but resistant pathogens can also be propagated further in the environment via currents, or food webs, allowing humans to be exposed in new ways.

The aim of this special issue is to provide examples relevant for European public health, on how anthropogenic changes to water affect epidemiology of human infectious disease and how these changes cause infections with pathogens exhibiting novel drug resistance and/or virulence patterns.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • emerging opportunistic fungal and bacterial infection acquired in the healthcare setting through contact with water and aerosols;
  • infections caused by organisms from ground water, drinking wells and water reservoirs with resistance to antimicrobials due to increasing concentrations of such substances in these artificial water systems;
  • unusual human outbreaks due to ingestion of pathogens present in foods originating from aquatic environments affected by anthropogenic changes, or due to exposure to pathogens from such environments;
  • issues related to the detection and identification of cases and the proof of anthropogenic change to water as a cause.

For guidance on submitting papers or for further information, consult the Eurosurveillance instructions for authors regarding article formats (at http://www.eurosurveillance.org/Public/ForAuthors/ForAuthors.aspx) or contact the editorial team at eurosurveillance@ecdc.europa.eu. [Source: Eurosurveillance, 16 April 2015. http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=21092]