Drug resistance taking a toll on healthcare — Experts

Experts have said that the challenge of antimicrobial resistance is placing a heavy burden on patients and healthcare systems.

AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death, according to the World Health Organisation. As a result, medicines become ineffective, and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spreading to others.

Antimicrobials — including antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics—are medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals, and plants. Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as “superbugs.”

The UN estimates that bacterial AMR was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths.

The World Bank estimates that AMR could result in $1 trillion in additional healthcare costs by 2050 and $1 trillion to $3.4 trillion in gross domestic product losses per year by 2030.

A recent report by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the likelihood of falling ill or dying from diseases that resist treatment has increased in Africa, with children and other vulnerable groups being most at risk.

“The continent faces the highest mortality rate from antimicrobial resistance, with 27.3 deaths per 100,000—exceeding the combined death toll from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria,” the report revealed.

The report also showed that Africa bears a significant burden of infectious diseases, accounting for approximately 95 per cent of malaria deaths, 70 per cent of people living with HIV, and 25 per cent of global TB deaths.

Dr Oladipo Kolawole, a Medical Virologist and Immunologist at Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, noted that AMR is increasingly burdening healthcare systems worldwide.
Kolawole explained that AMR leads to ineffective treatments, prolonged illness, higher healthcare costs, and a greater risk of severe outcomes or death.

“This has increased healthcare costs: treating drug-resistant infections is more expensive. Patients often require longer hospital stays, more intensive care, and the use of last-resort or newer, more expensive antibiotics. AMR is associated with a higher risk of complications and mortality. Infections that were once easily treatable, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and sepsis, are now becoming life-threatening due to resistance.

“Also, resistant pathogens can spread within communities and healthcare settings, leading to outbreaks that are difficult to control and require significant public health resources. AMR threatens the effectiveness of surgeries, cancer therapies, and organ transplants. These procedures rely on effective antibiotics to prevent and treat infections, but with increasing resistance, their safety and success rates are compromised.

“AMR could reverse decades of progress in medicine. The ability to treat infections is fundamental to many aspects of healthcare, and rising resistance undermines this foundation. Additionally, AMR does not recognise borders, making it a global health challenge that requires coordinated international efforts to address through surveillance, research, and new treatments,” he told our correspondent in an interview on Thursday.

The virologist stressed that AMR is a major healthcare challenge, necessitating urgent action to develop new treatments, improve antibiotic stewardship, and enhance global health infrastructure to manage and mitigate its impact.

Professor Tanimola Akande, a Public Health expert at the University of Ilorin and former National Chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, emphasised that AMR refers to the development of resistance by microbes to antibiotics meant to destroy them in the body.

He explained that when resistance develops, the microbes are not destroyed even when the particular antibiotics they have become resistant to are used.

“This leads to the symptoms and signs of the illness remaining unabated, and it can even lead to death. It can prolong hospital stays and the duration of treatment with antibiotics, which incurs direct and indirect costs to patients.

“When AMR occurs for a particular antibiotic, a stronger antibiotic or a combination of antibiotics has to be used to kill the microbes. Such antibiotics are usually more expensive. Newer antibiotics must be developed when older ones are no longer effective, and they are very costly,” Akande stressed.