By Muhammad Amaan
The Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) have raised fresh concerns over the growing threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), warning that infections are increasingly becoming resistant to some of the most potent antibiotics available in hospitals.
Researchers at the institute said recent findings from surveillance activities in Lagos State revealed alarming levels of resistance to third-generation cephalosporins, which are drugs typically reserved for severe infections that fail to respond to earlier treatments.
Highlighting the scope of the work, a NIMR Senior Researcher, Dr Emelda Chukwu, explained that one of their major contributions focused on improving AMR monitoring systems within the state’s healthcare network.
Speaking while briefing journalists during the NIMR February Media Chat, Chukwu, who is the lead researcher, said that the team structured a comprehensive survey built around four healthcare facilities selected in Lagos as sentinel sites.
According to her, these facilities served as monitoring points for identifying patterns of resistance among patients already hospitalized with different types of infections.
The results, she said, revealed troubling patterns in antibiotic effectiveness, particularly among drugs relied upon for serious cases.
“One of the major things that came out there, the results showed a high level of resistance to third-generation cephalosporin,” she said.
Dr Chukwu added, “These cephalosporins are beta-lactam drugs. They are broad-spectrum beta-lactam drugs used to treat severe infections because we have the first generation and we have the second generation.
“So, third generation is basically reserved for infections that have refused to yield to the first and second generation.”
However, the lead researcher said their surveillance data now show that even these reserve antibiotics are losing their effectiveness across multiple facilities in Lagos State.
“But we are now seeing that the organisms are developing resistance to even these third-generation antibiotics that are our reserve antibiotics. We saw it in the clinical cases in Lagos state across the four sentinel sites that we surveyed. This is an alarming issue,” Chukwu said.
Misuse and overuse of antibiotics, she said, are accelerating the emergence and spread of resistant organisms within communities.
“We noticed that it’s because of human behaviour basically, misuse and abuse of these antibiotics is a major factor that fuels resistance, that fuels transmission.
“So, irrespective of whether you are using it correctly or not, if your neighbour is not using it correctly, he or she can transmit a resistant infection to you, and you can come down with a resistant disease,” she said.
Without coordinated action, she warned, infections once easily treated could become increasingly difficult, and in some cases impossible, to cure.
“AMR is even threatening to overturn the gains that have been made over the years with the use of antibiotics for the treatment of numerous infectious diseases that we have. Following the discovery of antibiotics in the 1920s.
“But recently and currently, we are having high levels of resistance such that these organisms are no longer responding to these medicines that are supposed to kill them.
So, this is a major threat, especially in the 21st century. And it is even limiting us from attaining the sustainable development goal plan of good health and well-being for all,” she said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites do not respond to medicines, leading to infections becoming difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death.
The global health body raised concerns that AMR risks reversing many advances in modern medicine.
Overuse and misuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobials are major drivers of AMR, WHO added.
“AMR is one of the top global public health and development threats. It is estimated that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths.
“In addition to death and disability, AMR has high economic costs. The World Bank estimates that AMR could result in $1 trillion additional healthcare costs by 2050, and $1 trillion to $3.4 trillion gross domestic product losses per year by 2030,” WHO said.
