Unsafe drinking water fuels antimicrobial resistance among isolated tribal communities in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu: Study

Unsafe drinking water is a key ecological driver of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) among three of South India’s most isolated tribal communities, according to a new study by the University of Hyderabad’s (UoH) School of Life Sciences and the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI).

AMR a threat to modern medicine’s pillars

AMR is one of the most critical public health challenges of the 21st century, threatening the effectiveness of antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitic agents — the pillars of modern medicine. While resistance is a natural outcome of microbial evolution, its rapid emergence and global spread have been exacerbated by the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials across healthcare, agriculture, and veterinary sectors, as per an official press release issued on Tuesday (October 28, 2025).

Researchers — Sahid Afrid Mollick, Gin Khan Khual, and Pulamaghatta N. Venugopal from AnSI, in collaboration with Anwesh Maile and Hampapathalu Adimurthy from UoH’s Department of Systems and Computational Biology, used shotgun metagenomic sequencing to profile the gut microbiomes of three Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).

Communities in three States studied

The team studied 103 healthy adults from the Irula, Jenu Kuruba, and Kurumba communities across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala. Participants provided fecal samples and socio-demographic data, including information on water sources (stream vs. tubewell) and residential settings (rural vs. urban).

By sequencing the entire microbial DNA from stool samples, the study identified and quantified antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), offering new insights into how environmental and lifestyle factors influence the spread of resistance in vulnerable populations.

Although the study did not examine ARGs in water or other reservoirs such as soil, food, livestock, or runoff, it clearly demonstrated that drinking water source is a key ecological driver of gut resistome variation. Tubewell users predominantly harbored antibiotic resistance genes, while stream-water consumers showed greater diversity and enrichment of non-antibiotic resistance determinants — particularly those linked to metals and biocides.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared AMR a global health emergency in 2014 and estimates that it could cause up to 10 million deaths annually by 2050. In this context, the study offers urgent insights into how local environments may influence the spread of resistance, particularly among isolated tribal populations. The findings underscore the urgent need for safe water access, environmental surveillance, and resistome-informed public health strategies, the release added.