The AWARE Project

AWARE is a European research project aiming at investigating the transmission of bacteria resistant to antibiotics and resistance genes resulting from human exposure within and around wastewater treatment plants. This figure shows an overview of the project with:

A. the participating countries: the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, and Germany,
B. the study domain, WWTP samples and workers of and residents living nearby WWTPs,
C. the techniques involved (epidemiological, molecular and cultural analyses of ESBL, CPE, and the resistome, and
D. the outcome: epidemiological evaluation of differences in the prevalence of ESBL, CPE, and the resistome between workers and residents of WWTPs and the general population, changes in relative and absolute resistance along different wastewater chains, and models for airborne and waterborne exposure to resistant bacteria and resistance genes.

overview

Background

Antibiotic resistance has emerged as a serious global public health threat. The role of the environment in dissemination and emergence of antibiotic resistance has been highlighted, and numerous studies identified specific genes or resistant bacteria in environmental media. Still, little is known about the transmission dynamics of antibiotic resistance from water, air and soil and their risks for humans in direct contact with these matrices. [more...]

Objectives

The AWARE project addresses transmission of resistant bacteria and resistance genes resulting from human exposure within and around wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) [more...]

Work Packages

The AWARE project is organized in six different but complementary work packages. [more...]