Spatiotemporal urban water profiling for the assessment of environmental and public exposure to antimicrobials (antibiotics, antifungals, and antivirals) in the Eerste River Catchment, South Africa

Abstract

Antimicrobial agent (AA) usage, excretion, and persistence are all important factors in association with the occurrence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance. Urban water profiling was utilised in the Eerste River catchment (South Africa) to establish AA usage in a region where comprehensive prescription records were not readily available and where portions of the community did not have sufficient access to sanitation. This technique enabled the environmental exposure to be quantified throughout the catchment area and the identification of contamination hotspots. Monitoring occurred over a 11-month period. 812 samples were processed using UPLC-MS/MS for the quantitation of 56 antimicrobials and 26 of their metabolites. Spatiotemporal trends were established, with consideration to community behaviour, seasonal changes, and physiochemical properties of the analytes. The Eerste River samples collected upstream from the town of Stellenbosch had the lowest AA loads (97%). This was also the case for beta-lactams, nitrofurantoin, and trimethoprim. The treatment efficacy for other drugs was more variable, that did not appear to have temporal significance.

Keywords

• Antibiotics antivirals and antifungals occurrence
• AMR
• Catchment monitoring
• Wastewater
• River