Loss of antibiotic effectiveness poses extinction risk to humanity — Expert

A N infectious disease expert, Professor Abdulrazaq Habib says increasingly many drugs are proving useless in treating many infections due to antimicrobial resistance and this is posing an extinction threat to humanity.

Professor Habib, chairman of the Kano State Coronavirus (COVID-19) Task Force Team, who spoke at a Pfizer hosted virtual media roundtable to mark the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, said the loss of effectiveness of many antibiotics is a public health problem, especially when combined with other pandemics such as HIV/AIDS.

The expert said many diseases rampant in low and medium-income countries such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV are increasingly developing resistance to antimicrobial agents even as antimicrobial resistance also threatens food production, poverty alleviation, health security, universal health coverage and sustainable development goals.

Habib declared that global mobility is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance, with the dispersal of many infections like salmonella thyhii from countries like India to the rest of the world.

According to him, “as a way forward, there is the need to increase awareness and to sensitise the population about antimicrobial resistance; put in place a robust surveillance platform such as the global antimicrobial surveillance system, ensure a good antimicrobial stewardship, a rational use of antibiotics as well as a revamp and improve immunisation and infection prevention measures such as hygiene and sanitation.”

Professor Oladipo Aboderin, speaking on the effects of diseases that arise from AMR, declared that the problem has increased people’s suffering, made people get sicker and perhaps even dying, increased people’s hospital stay, made people incur more costs to treat infections and contributed to absenteeism from school and workplaces.

Aboderin, a professor of medical microbiology & parasitology at the College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, declared that “Today, it accounts for 700,000 deaths annually, and by 2050 it could take 10 million lives globally each year. The sad thing is that 4.1 million of these deaths will be from Africa. So we can’t just fold our hands.”

He stated that ways to control the problem should include knowing the exact burden of antimicrobial resistance in Nigeria, improving capacity for surveillance and diagnosis capacity for microbial infections to guide appropriate use of antimicrobials and everybody becoming an antibiotic steward.

Aboderin added “If the infection can be prevented, we will prevent the use of antibiotics, which is the major driver of resistance. The public needs to be educated on possible side effects of antibiotics they are given when actually they don’t need it and antimicrobial stewardship should be entrenched in hospitals.”

Medical Director East & Anglo West Africa Pfizer, Dr Kodjo Soro said that Pfizer is committed to R&D efforts to deliver new and effective anti-infective therapies which target newly emerging and difficult to treat infections with COVID-19 pandemic been a stark reminder of the social and economic hardships of infectious diseases.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.