抗生素垃圾污染中印河流 大藥廠須採取行動

antibiotic-resistant superbugs are a fundamental threat to global health UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon recently told a general assembly meeting. Failure to address the problem he said would make it “difficult if not impossible” to provide universal healthcare “and it will put the sustainable development goals in jeopardy”.

“耐抗生素的超級細菌是對全球衛生的一項根本威脅。”聯合國祕書長潘基文最近在一個會議上表示。若是不能解決他說的這個問題，它將使提供普遍醫療保健變得困難（如果不是不可能的話）。它將使可持續發展目標陷入危險“。

For pharmaceutical companies the attention on antimicrobial resistance has also brought a focus on one of its key drivers: the unabated environmental pollution of drug factories in developing countries.

對製藥公司來說，對抗菌素耐藥性的關注也帶來了一個關鍵驅動因素：發展中國家藥物工廠的環境污染。

In India and China where a large proportion of antibiotics are produced the poorly regulated discharge of untreated wastewater into soils and rivers is causing the spread of antibiotic ingredients which cause bacteria to develop immunity to antibiotics creating superbugs.

在印度和中國，大量的抗生素產生，未經處理的廢水進入土壤和河流的排放不良，導致抗生素成分的傳播，使得細菌進化出對抗生素產生免疫的超級細菌。

A study of drug factories in China found that antibiotic-resistant bacteria were not only escaping purification but also breeding. For every bacterium that entered one waste treatment plant four or five antibiotic-resistant bacteria were released into the water system tainting water livestock and communities.

中國的一家藥企研究發現，抗藥性細菌不但很難殺滅淨化，而且還會繁殖。細菌進入污水處理廠後，都會繁殖成4或者5個細菌進入到自然水環境當中，並且對水生物和社區造成污染。

Superbugs are able to travel quickly through air and water aboard airplanes and through global food supply chains. By 2050 the total death toll worldwide as the result of contracting an infection that proves resistant to treatment is expected toreach 10 million people (pdf).

超級細菌在空氣和水裏可以通過飛機以及全球的食物供應鏈快速的傳播，預計到2050年，全球將會有1000萬人將死於細菌抗藥性。