Antimicrobial resistance: Action is needed urgently

Global leaders will, starting tomorrow, converge at the UN General Assembly to discuss the extent to which antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has cast an unvarnished light on public health. Indeed, all indications suggest that the world is edging daringly close to a future that is increasingly precarious. Consequently, more money is desperately needed to rein in drug-resistant pathogens.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the precarity of the situation is underscored by the fact that way too few antibacterials are currently being developed to fight pathogens. As a result, the world has been sinking steadily deeper into a seemingly bottomless chasm expected to knock back slightly over $1 trillion in economic costs by 2030.

There is no great secret to, or difficulty in, the manner this shared sense of trouble has emerged. Researchers and companies are less inclined to create new replacement antibiotics.

Why? Since antibiotics are used for a fleeting period to deal with infections, they pale in comparison with, specifically, their cousins for chronic ailments—like diabetes or high blood pressure—that are dead certain to turn in profits purely on account of being taken for significantly longer periods.

As the UN general assembly moves to impose a modicum of order on the chaos that has led to the advent of drug-resistant superbugs, we reckon a moment of introspection for Uganda is long overdue.

Misuse of antibiotics in the country has kept sticking out like the metaphorical sore thumb. A 2023 study by the Uganda National Institute of Public Health came to the conclusion that “there is a significant increase in trends of drug resistance to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin ceftriaxone, meropenem, imipenem, and tetracycline (among the Gram-negative organisms) in Uganda.”

This was largely due to “indiscriminate use of antimicrobials” fuelled, in no small part, by “over-the-counter medication access.”

The impact of the aforesaid widespread drug resistance to antibiotics cannot be taken lightly. It is said to affect a slew of treatments including caesarean sections, cancer interventions and organ transplantation.

In fact, deaths suffered at the hands of drug-resistant pathogens are on the rise after the coronavirus pandemic curbs initially appeared to slow them down.

All of this means that international action is urgently needed. We cannot stress enough the importance of prioritising this global health threat.

It is vitally important that the powers that be create awareness not just around misuse of antibiotics. This also includes abuse in various farming practices, ostensibly to keep animals healthy. It is increasingly becoming evident that we risk reaping the whirlwind if not in the here and now then certainly the near future.

As such, concerted intergovernmental action is needed on all fronts to address what is truly a multi‑faceted issue. While we are under no illusions that there are quick fixes, our fervent hope is that tomorrow’s UN general assembly turns out to be a good starting point.

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