Antibiotics are one of the most important discoveries of medicine. They have saved and still save millions of lives every year. But their effectiveness is threatened because bacteria can adapt and become resistant to treatment. From the carrier individual, these bacteria will invariably be found in community wastewater. This waste will be treated by wastewater treatment plants that produce effluent discharged into rivers and sludge often applied to crops. Resistant bacteria contaminate our rivers, lakes, seas and fields, and are now considered emerging contaminants.
This conference aims to show the origin of these bacteria and explain the mechanisms of resistance of these pathogens to antibiotics. What are the factors favoring their emergence and diffusion? Why do they survive so long in this hostile environment? What risk do they pose to local residents, bathers or consumers? We will consider ways (for the community but also at the individual level) to limit the spread of these bacteria that cause difficult to treat infections.
Didier Hocquet is a professor of bacteriology at the University of Franche-Comté and at the CHU of Besançon. It studies the emergence and spread of pathogenic bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
Our bacteria resistant to antibiotics pollute the environment.
Little Kursaal, Besançon
Monday April 9th
Free admission
General public
