Lara Adejoro, Abuja Medical experts have raised the alarm that the challenge of antimicrobial resistance is taking a toll on patients and healthcare delivery in Nigeria. AMR 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, according to the World Health Organisation. As a result, the medicines become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spread to others.
Antimicrobials – including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics – are medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals, and plants. Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as superbugs. The UN body estimates that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.
27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths. The World Bank estimates that AMR could result in $1tn additional healthcare costs by 2050 and $ 1tn to $3.
4tn gross domestic product losses per year by 2030. A recent report by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the likelihood of falling ill or dying from diseases that resist treatment has escalated in Africa, with children and other vulnerable groups being most at risk. “The continent faces the highest mortality rate from antimicrobial resistance, with 27.
3 deaths per 100,000—exceeding the combined death .