The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has raised alarm on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) which is poised to become one of the greatest threats to global health.
The NCDC said that it could push millions into extreme poverty, reverse decades of medical progress, and cause millions of deaths annually.
The NCDC’s director-general, Jide Idris, said this at the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79), during the side event on AMR, organized by the Management Science for Health (MSH).
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat. According to the World Health Organisation, it increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
WHO estimates that AMR could lead to as many as 10 million deaths per year by 2050 if no effective measures are taken to address it. With a projected population of over 400 million by 2050, Nigeria’s success in fighting AMR is vital to mitigating its dire consequences.
Idris said urgent action was needed to combat this growing crisis, which endangered lives and livelihoods worldwide. According to him, AMR is driven by various factors, including the global use and misuse of antibiotics in both human and animal health.
He said it is also driven by inadequate access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate infection prevention measures and weak surveillance systems. He highlighted Nigeria’s National Action Plan on AMR as part of its commitment to addressing the issue of AMR within the country.
He explained that through the NCDC, Nigeria had made significant strides in improving diagnostic laboratory networks to enhance the ability to track and monitor AMR and improve early detection of outbreaks.
He said there was an urgent need for a coordinated approach to address AMR, describing it as a global development challenge.
He said that achieving universal health coverage was one of the important steps in combating AMR.
Furthermore, the NCDC boss said that improving the supply chain was a critical element in the fight against AMR, which the government is working on to strengthen pharmaceutical distribution systems.
