Linking Environmental Reservoirs to Infectious Disease: Transmission, Resistance, and Clinical Implications

The field of environmental microbiology increasingly recognizes the environment as a significant reservoir for human pathogens and antimicrobial resistance AMR. Bacteria, viruses, and fungi persist in diverse matrices including water, air, food, surfaces, and particularly wastewater, where they may acquire or harbor resistance genes. These habitats not only promote the survival and dissemination of infectious agents but also the proliferation of antibiotic residues that drive the selection of resistant strains. As global concern mounts over emerging and re-emerging infections, evidence has associated environmental reservoirs with various transmission pathways and disease outbreaks, particularly in healthcare and densely populated community settings. Despite advances in surveillance and molecular analyses, substantial gaps remain in understanding how environmental contamination translates into clinical infection and drives resistant organisms’ spread among vulnerable populations.Recent studies utilizing wastewater and environmental sampling have significantly advanced our ability to monitor pathogen circulation and track AMR across different settings. By integrating microbiological, molecular, and clinical data, researchers can map transmission routes and uncover links between environmental isolates, patient colonization, and active infections. These approaches have elucidated potential outbreaks, informed infection prevention policies, and identified new resistance determinants. However, questions persist regarding the accuracy and resolution of environmental surveillance, the dynamics of pathogen transfer, and the correlation between environmental findings and clinical outcomes, necessitating more comprehensive and interdisciplinary research.This Research Topic aims to elucidate the role of environmental matrices as sources, reservoirs, and surveillance indicators for human pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. We invite contributions that explore infectious disease transmission, pathogenesis, diagnostics, and prevention in both healthcare settings such as hospitals and long-term care facilities and non-healthcare environments where links to clinical cases can be established. Particularly valuable are comparative studies examining overlaps between environmental and clinical isolates, as well as investigations elucidating mechanisms governing AMR spread and transmission pathways.The scope of this Research Topic includes, but is not limited to, research that links environmental monitoring to clinical and public health outcomes. Studies may focus on a single environment or compare across multiple sites, but all should emphasize relevance to infection risk or transmission. We welcome original research, systematic reviews, methods, reviews, and mini reviews articles addressing the following themes:• Emerging and re-emerging pathogens in matrices such as water, air, food, surfaces, and wastewater• Antibiotic residues, resistance genes, and resistant microbes present in the environment• Human infections associated with environmental exposure• Public health and infection prevention strategies responding to environmental pathogen circulation• Wastewater and environmental surveillance techniques for clinically significant pathogens and resistance markers• Novel models for tracking pathogen and resistance circulation using clinical data integration• New methodologies for environmental and clinical correlation relevant to infection risk• Comparative molecular epidemiology and genomic surveillance of environmental and clinical isolates• Defined transmission pathways and mechanisms linking environmental reservoirs and human infection• Environmental monitoring to support diagnosis, outbreak detection, and stewardship interventions Topic editors: Francesca Pennino, Marina Isidori, Margherita Lavorgna Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79759/linking-environmental-reservoirs-to-infectious-disease-transmission-resistance-and-clinical-implications