In many developing countries, untreated hospital effluents are discharged and treated simultaneously with municipal wastewater. However, if the hospital effluents are not treated separately, they pose concerning health risks due to the possible transport of the antimicrobial genes and microbes in the environment. Such effluent is considered as a point source for a number of potentially infectious microorganisms, waste antimicrobial compounds and other contaminants that could promote antimicrobial resistance development. The removal of these contaminants prior to discharge reduces the exposure of antimicrobials to the environment and this should lower the risk of superbug development. At an effluent discharge site, suitable pre-treatment of wastewater containing antimicrobials could maximise the ecological impact with potentially reduced risk to human health. In addressing these points, this paper reviews the applications of decentralized treatment systems toward reducing the concentration of antimicrobials in wastewater. The most commonly used techniques in decentralized wastewater treatment systems for onsite removal of antimicrobials were discussed and evidence suggests that hybrid techniques should be more useful for the efficient removal of antimicrobials. It is concluded that alongside the cooperation of administration departments, health industries, water treatment authorities and general public, decentralized treatment technology can efficiently enhance the removal of antimicrobial compounds, thereby decreasing the concentration of contaminants released to the environment that could pose risks to human and ecological health due to development of antimicrobial resistance in microbes.
Keywords: Antimicrobial compounds; Antimicrobial resistance; Decentralized system; Hospital effluent; Wastewater treatment.
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