Croatian ‘Superbug River’ Puts Pharma Pollution Under the Microscope

From a dirt road on the north bank of the Sava river, the scene is bucolic: lush foliage, a pebble beach, sky on the water. Then you see the concrete drain, half-hidden under ivy. The air reeks of sewage. Brown foam clots in the shallows.

For microbiologist Nikolina Udikovic Kolic, what is most worrying about this spot 15 kilometres upstream from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, is not what you can see and smell. It is what she found lurking in sediment around the drain — microscopic and possibly deadly.