One historically overlooked avenue by which antibiotic resistance can spread is through contact or consumption of contaminated water. For example, recent news articles have raised fears about human sewage tainted water at some of the venues for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the potential spread of resistant ‘super-bugs’. Unfortunately, the Brazilian Olympics is just one example of the growing scale of this problem. The situation is “a global health challenge,” said Peter Vikesland, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.
