Experts highlight that the challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is severely burdening healthcare systems, leading to ineffective treatments, prolonged illness, and higher healthcare costs. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites resist medicines, making infections harder to treat. This increases the risk of severe illness, death, and the spread of disease, affecting vulnerable populations worldwide.

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]xperts have raised concerns over the growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is placing a significant burden on healthcare systems and patients globally.

AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites evolve to resist the effects of medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of severe illness and death, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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The resistance means medicines become ineffective, allowing infections to persist and spread.

Antimicrobials, including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics, are crucial in treating infections in humans, animals, and plants. However, microorganisms that develop AMR, often referred to as “superbugs,” are becoming harder to eliminate.

The UN estimates that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019, with an additional 4.95 million deaths linked to the resistance.

Furthermore, the World Bank predicts that AMR could result in $1 trillion in additional healthcare costs by 2050 and up to $3.4 trillion in global GDP losses per year by 2030.

In Africa, the situation is particularly alarming. A recent report by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that AMR has increased the likelihood of illness and death from diseases that resist treatment, with vulnerable groups, especially children, most at risk.

The continent now faces the highest mortality rate from AMR, at 27.3 deaths per 100,000 people—surpassing deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.

Medical virologist and immunologist Dr Oladipo Kolawole from Adeleke University noted that AMR is increasingly straining healthcare systems, leading to higher costs, prolonged illness, and increased mortality.

Treating drug-resistant infections is more expensive, often requiring longer hospital stays, intensive care, and newer, costly antibiotics.

Kolawole warned that AMR could reverse decades of medical progress, as resistance compromises the success of surgeries, cancer treatments, and organ transplants.

Public health expert Professor Tanimola Akande explained that AMR occurs when microbes resist antibiotics designed to destroy them.

This resistance leaves patients’ symptoms unresolved and can lead to extended hospital stays and even death. New, stronger antibiotics or combinations of antibiotics are then required, which are often much more expensive.

Both experts stress that addressing AMR requires urgent international action, including new treatments, better antibiotic stewardship, and enhanced global health infrastructure to prevent further escalation of the crisis.