The growing concerns about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) have become a significant public health issue worldwide causing the World Health Organization (WHO) to recently release a comprehensive global research agenda to tackle antimicrobial resistance.
AMR is a significant public health and economic challenge. It was estimated that globally, 4.95 million deaths were associated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with 1.27 million of these being directly attributable to AMR.
Sub-Saharan Africa experiences the highest mortality burden due to antibiotic resistance stressing the urgent need for awareness and intervention.
It is therefore in this regard that the Federation of Ghana Medical Students’ Association is raising awareness of AMR.
As part of the Association’s annual antimicrobial resistance awareness week celebration, a level 500 student of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Cape Coast, Emmanuel Eshun expressed the need for widespread public understanding of antimicrobial resistance which is increasingly becoming a serious health issue.
In an interview with ATLFMNEWS, Emmanuel highlighted that common antimicrobials particularly antibiotics utilized to combat microbes such as bacteria, viruses and parasites are encountering resistance and are fast becoming ineffective resulting in the need for more effective working drugs.
Mr. Eshun Donkor highlighted the serious health and economic repercussions of antimicrobial resistance on individuals and the country.
He, therefore, urged the public to take action both individually and as a country to fight the antimicrobial resistance threat.
“We don’t want to get into the pre-antibiotic era where there are no agents that we use to treat our infections.
“When we are treating infections and the infections are not being taken care of, it means that we would have a population where a lot of people are infected, where the spread of infection is also increased and even in its rapidity,” he continued.
To him, the consequences of this fall much on the overall health of the future youth in the country, thereby also affecting productivity and the economy of the country as a whole.
Further pressing on the major causes of antimicrobial resistance, Mr. Eshun pointed out the inappropriate use of antimicrobials due to self-medication and the incomplete taking of a complete dosage of prescribed medication.
“With this, these organisms with time are able to withstand this medication and the efficacy of these drugs is then impaired. And so, the resistance develops.”
Adding to these concerns, Ms. Mavis Sackey, a level 400 student of the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Cape Coast reiterated the severity of AMR’s impact on public health which to her must be of great concern.
She added that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are presenting an urgent and escalating threat to public health increasing common infections such as urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
“It should be taken very seriously because as we speak now studies conducted by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, show some strains of gonorrhoea are resisting the antibiotics we are using in treatment. Over the years, there were some antibiotics like penicillin and others used to treat gonorrhoea, and then there was resistance that developed along the line. It’s not a good thing to note.”
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Source: Flora Tang
