Environmental and food reservoirs of antibiotic resistant organisms and its link with human UTIs in Vietnam

The global emergence of organisms resistant to virtually all antibiotics is considered as one of the major public health threats (WHO, 2011, Annual Global Health Day). Vietnam faces a serious antibiotic resistance problem due to the high and inappropriate antibiotic use in humans and recently resistant organisms in humans, livestock, food and environmental samples have also been demonstrated. This project aims to study the antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli isolated from livestock, food, water and patients with urinary tract infections. Hence, this project provides a comprehensive picture of the level of antibiotic resistance in different reservoirs in a defined study area, Hanoi. Furthermore, this project aims to elucidate the potential correlation between the presence of antibiotic resistance in food-animals, the environment and their presence in humans.