Austin Peay chemistry professor receives Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship for antibiotic pollution research in South Africa
(Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2023)
Dr. Allen Chaparadza, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Austin Peay State University, has been awarded a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program grant for the second time.
The fellowship will allow Chaparadza to travel to South Africa to work with Dr. Caliphs Zvinowanda at the University of Johannesburg. The project – titled “Collaborative Research and Graduate Training and/or Mentoring: Development of Composite Materials based Passive Samplers for Monitoring Antibiotics and/or Metabolites in Surface Waters” – will focus on the prevalence of antibiotics and their metabolites in surface waters after the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Dr. Chaparadza, antibiotic prescriptions spiked during the pandemic, particularly in the Johannesburg area.
“The prevalence of antimicrobial use in South Africa is almost three times more than other BRICS countries like Brazil, China, and India,” he said. “While the reason for this is not clear, over-prescription of antibiotics might be a contributing factor.”
The technology used in the project will allow for the monitoring of pollutants over time, without the need for animal models.
“This is an improvement over traditional methods of monitoring that involve catching fish and analyzing the concentration of pollutants in them,” Chaparadza said. “The technology allows for a much clearer time-based picture of the extent of pollution in surface waters and avoids the need for inhumane practices.
“The project aims to provide data on the extent to which these pollutants are within the waters used by people on a daily basis,” he added. “Most water treatment facilities are not required to remove antibiotics, and they are discharged into waterways, and they end up being sent back directly or indirectly to consumers.”
Chaparadza said that over-prescription of antibiotics leads to antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
“The project aims to inform policymakers and raise awareness among the general public on the extent of pollution and the need to reduce over-prescription of antibiotics,” he said.
The project is expected to have significant implications for the understanding of the effects of the over-prescription of antibiotics and the prevention of antimicrobial resistance. The research could provide valuable data that could raise awareness of the importance of reducing pollution in surface waters.
More about the fellowship program
The project is one of 63 new projects that pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training and mentoring activities in 2023.
The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, now in its 10th year, is designed to strengthen capacity at the host institutions and develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with the Association of African Universities (AAU). Nearly 600 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded to scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception in 2013.
Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.
See a full list of newly selected projects, hosts and scholars.
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