FG urged to declare state of emergency on high drug resistance diseases

The Federal Government has been advised to declare, without delay, a state of emergency in the pharmaceutical industry to address the high cases of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) infections in the country.

The Chairman and Chief Executive of St.Racheal’s Pharmaceutical Nigeria, Akinjide Adeosun, made the call on Wednesday in his message commemorating this year’s World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week in Lagos.

According to him, the government, particularly at the centre, will need to centrally purchase antibiotics for the Federal Teaching Hospitals and medical centres across the country and direct the dispensing of the same at subsidised rates to patients who need them but are financially challenged.

He said the move would be in line with the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) strategic plan of 1994, as many Nigerians are poor and cannot afford the few effective antibiotics available on the market.

Adeosun, in a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune, argued that such bulk purchases would not only help to tame the increasing antibiotic resistance that is being fueled by the high level of poverty and inflation in the country but would also significantly boost the pharmaceutical industry and manufacturing sector as a whole, as well as employment generation.

He explained that AMR happens when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them and that the high cost of drugs and treatment, as well as the increasing level of poverty, have worsened the scenario in the country.

He noted that AMR caused a substantial number of sicknesses and deaths around the world, including in Nigeria, and was also responsible for about 1.27 million deaths globally and 64,500 of them in Nigeria in 2019, with a projection for the number to reach 10 million deaths each year by 2050.

He said this year’s theme of the awareness week, “Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together,” meant that the assignment to fight AMR, including the prevention of infectious diseases, required cross-sectoral collaborations with the government taking the lead.

Akinjide said AMR is not only a threat to humans but also to animals, plants, and the environment, and that the time to fight it is now.

He, however, pointed out that only a healthy nation can be economically prosperous and its people can enjoy a good life and live long.

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