MULTI-country research on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Africa says most laboratories across Africa are not ready for AMR testing. It says further that only a fraction can evaluate AMR despite the looming crisis of drug-resistant pathogens.
The finding of the study, released at the African Union meeting indicated that only five of 15 antibiotic-resistant pathogens designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as priority pathogens are consistently tested in Nigeria and 13 other sub-Saharan countries. Moreover, all five demonstrated high resistance.
The multi-year, multi-country study done by the Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP), which reveals a lack of laboratory capacity and erratic use of available antibiotics, said only 1.3% of the 50,000 medical laboratories forming the laboratory networks of the 14 participating countries conduct bacteriology testing.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records spanning from 2016 to 2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Eswatini, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon and Cameroon. It also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
According to the study, only four drugs comprised more than two-thirds (67%) of all the antibiotics used in healthcare settings. Stronger medicines to treat more resistant infections (such as severe pneumonia, sepsis and complicated intra-abdominal infections) were not available, suggesting limited access to some groups of antibiotics.
Across the 14 countries, clinical and treatment data are not being linked to laboratory results, making it hard to understand the driving force behind AMR.
According to Africa CDC AMR programme coordinator, Dr Yewande Alimi stated “This disconnect between patient data and antimicrobial resistance results, coupled with the extreme antimicrobial resistance burden, makes it incredibly difficult to provide accurate guidelines for patient care and wider public health policies. Hence, collecting and connecting laboratory, pharmacy and clinical data will be essential to provide a baseline and a reference for public health actions.”
Director and president, One Health Trust, Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, while noting that the study was an important step forward for Africa’s health system, adding that the future of modern medicine and Africa’s ability to control antimicrobial resistance hinges on ability to treat infectious diseases reliably.
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