Airborne pathogens are making their way into the eastern Himalayan hills, new research reveals. These germs are associated with respiratory and skin diseases. The Ministry of Science and Technology issued a press release on Wednesday warning of the health risks posed by these “desert bacteria”.
A study conducted by the Bose Institute shows that severe dust storms can travel hundreds of kilometers. These storms pick up particles as they pass through the densely populated and polluted Indo-Gangetic plain. Eventually, the dust settles on the Himalayan hills, posing a serious risk to public health.
Experts from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) monitored dust storms for more than two years before reaching their conclusions.
The findings, published in the journal “Science of the Total Environment,” suggest a disruption of the atmospheric bacterial community over the Himalayas. This phenomenon causes horizontal long-distance transport of dust and vertical rise of sub-mountainous air pollution. The study demonstrates the direct consequences of airborne microbial exposure on public health.
As vertical uplift injects pathogens from local sources into the high-altitude atmosphere, the transported pathogens mix with long-distance travelers arriving from afar. Thus, dust storms reshape the bacterial communities over the Himalayas and contribute to gastrointestinal infections, in addition to respiratory and skin diseases.
Another journal published by the Weizmann Institute of Science titled “Dust Storm-Driven Dispersal of Potential Pathogens and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in the Eastern Mediterranean” reveals similar findings.
The researchers studied 13 “dusty days” with air originating from the Middle East. They used metagenomic analysis—a method of studying genetic material from environmental samples—to identify several pathogens.
These included Klebsiella pneumoniae and Aspergillus fumigatus, which are associated with human lung diseases. They also found fungi like Puccinia striiformis that damage wheat crops. The study noted that the number of these pathogens increased during storms and with rising temperatures.
The study, covering the Sahara Desert, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia and including 32 clear days, further noted that dust storms transferred nearly 125 times more overall antibiotic resistance genes than clear conditions. However, the researchers failed to show “strong evidence that these species have genes related to antibiotic resistance or virulence, which could be related to their pathogenic potential”.
