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Researchers Find Superbug in China's Wastewater

Researchers from Rice University have discovered antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" that manage to survive wastewater treatment in northern China.

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Waste water treated with chlorine sloshes around at Fort Worth's waste water treatment plant. The plant began producing reclaimed water only in the last several months.
Credit: Djakhangir Zakhidov

Researchers from Rice University have discovered antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" that manage to survive wastewater treatment in northern China, according to an article in the newsletter Water Online. They found even higher amounts of the "superbugs" in the sludge applied to soil. The results of the scientists' study, first published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, were "scary," said Rice University's Pedro Alvarez.

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