Pharmaco-EcoMicrobiology and Its Potential Role in Medical and Environmental Sciences

Abstract

Despite the call of the World Health Organization (WHO) for “Pharmacovigilance,” i.e. the monitoring, detection, assessment, and prevention of any adverse reactions, poor attention has been given to identify the long term and short term Adverse Effects (ADEs) of antimicrobial agents on the environment. It is obvious that most of the health sectors across the globe are occupied by infectious diseases (e.g. tuberculosis, HIV, and hepatitis), and to combat such threats, the pharmaceutical industries are pouring tons of drugs and reagents into a market worth billions of dollars. The discharge of these products into the ecosystem is potentially a threat to the environment and human health. In this chapter, the authors depicted a recently described terminology, “Pharmaco-EcoMicrobiology” (PEcM), that could cover these problems and their possible solutions on medical and environmental aspects. In this regard, the role of pharmacoinformatics could also be crucial, since it can provide swift information for implementation and use of information technologies for the discovery and development of drugs as well as in pharmacy education and also the detection and combat of adverse drug effects.