GEOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS:

"In a massive survey of rivers across 72 countries, researchers found antibiotics at 66 percent of 711 sites sampled. Many of the most drug-polluted waterways were in Asia and Africa, where there hadn’t been much data until now." Roughly 16% of sites samples showed levels of antibiotics considered unsafe and likely to promote antibiotic resistance. "People should be as concerned about resistance evolving abroad as they are about resistance brewing in their own backyards, says William Gaze, a microbial ecologist at the University of Exeter Medical School in England who was not involved with the research. Even if wealthy countries curb antibiotic pollution, drug-resistant microbes can hitch a ride across the globe with traveling people, migrating birds or traded food and livestock, he says." www.sciencenews.org/article/world-rivers-dangerous-levels-antibiotics