Disease and Ecology

My story on the problem of pharmaceutical residues in the environment–which has led to the mass poisoning of vultures in South Asia–is now up on Yale e360, and here on this website. I’ll never look at my medicine cabinet, or drugstore aisles, the same way.  I had no idea that so many drugs we take pass through the body–and waste treatment plants–virtually intact. All those antibacterial soaps and sprays and pills and potions at your local CVS? Turns out that a vast majority of the drugs within, after use, will end up in waterways and sediments, where their residues will rub shoulders with soil and marine bacteria, exchanging genes. Whatever doesn’t kill them makes them stronger. I know first-hand. My son just survived a bout of MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphlococcus aureus) rash. For him, it was a minor annoyance (albeit an alarming one.) For people with compromised immune systems or with background illnesses, drug-resistant bacteria are killers. RIP Gyps vultures, too, poisoned to the brink of extinction by the anti-inflammatory drugs in the treated livestock they feed upon.