By NASIBO KABALE
Some of the world’s best-known rivers, including the Nairobi River, are contaminated with antibiotics that exceed levels considered to be safe in health terms.
According to a global study conducted by York University researchers, concentrations of antibiotics found in some of the world’s rivers exceed “safe” levels by up to 300 times. Sites, where antibiotics exceeded these levels by the greatest degree, were in Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
Speaking to the Business Daily, Prof Alistair Boxall, theme leader of the York Environmental Sustainability Institute, said that samples collected from the Nairobi River revealed that the most prevalent antibiotic was sulfamethoxazole.
Sulfamethoxazole is normally given in combination with Trimethoprim. The research by the York team reveals that the antibiotic, which is primarily used to treat a variety of bacterial infections including urinary tract infections, was detected at 307 of the 711 sites tested…Read more>>
