By Muhammad Amaan
Nigeria’s Federal Government has unveiled the National Antimicrobial Resistance Policy (AMR) to forestall public health threat in the country.
Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako stated this in Abuja at the inauguration of the National Antimicrobial policy and Strategic Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (2023-2027) Environment Sector.
He said that the nation stood to gain socio-economic benefits from the effective implementation of the AMR policy through improved public health and increased productivity.
“Antimicrobial resistance is not only a public health threat; it has huge implications for global economic wellbeing and security, affecting both developed and developing countries.
“Nigeria, as a responsible member of the global community, is committed to adopting a holistic approach to addressing AMR; to ensuring all of sector involvement; no duplication and efficient use of scarce resources.
“To achieve this and protect public health, food security and the environment, the recognition of the interconnectedness between human, animal and environmental health in line with the One Health principles is central.”
The minister said that AMR was listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the 10 top threats to global health.
“According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), AMR is a global crisis that cannot be understood or addressed separately from the triple planetary crisis.
“This report shows that AMR threat is growing at an alarming rate making treatment challenging with longer hospital stays, increased mortality and higher healthcare cost.’’
He said that the World Bank estimated that AMR could result in 1 trillion dollars additional healthcare costs by 2050 and 1 trillion dollars to 3.4 trillion dollars gross domestic product (GDP) losses per year by 2030.
“AMR surveillance will ensure wildlife is not harmed by antimicrobials and drug resistant microorganisms in the environment; this ultimately protects human health by reducing the risk of zoonotic disease outbreak,” he said.
Dominique Koffy Kouacou, Head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Nigeria, said that the antimicrobial resistance scourge affected humans, animals, plants and the environment.
“Antimicrobial resistance, which is a one health issue, needs to be tackled by all sectors and therefore important for countries to put in place actions that would reduce and control the scourge.
“It is estimated that 10 million people would die annually by the year 2050 and the economies of nations negatively affected if this challenge is not mitigated.
“It is for this reason that the FAO in 2022 supported the Federal Ministry of Environment to develop the National AMR Policy and the National Strategic Plan (2023 – 2027).
“This is important in ensuring that all relevant environment stakeholders get sensitised and participate in the fight against AMR in the environment specifically and generally in the animal human interface,” he said.
