FG Launches Antimicrobial Resistance Policy To Prevent 64,000 Deaths

Federal Ministry of Environment has launched a national policy to combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the environmental sector. The antimicrobial resistance scourge affects humans, animals, plants, and the environment.

The new national AMR policy for the environment sector, which consists of 4 objectives, also articulates the requisite policy interventions and mapped out roles for public and private sector stakeholders.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Nigeria has a burden of 64,000 deaths associated with AMR annually. It is estimated that 10 million people will die annually by the year 2050, and nation’s economies will be negatively affected if this challenge is not mitigated. NCDC said the impact of AMR on the economy, health systems, and attainment is enormous. Up to $100 trillion of global gross domestic product could be lost due to AMR by 2050.

Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Kunle Salako, said the government is committed to adopting a holistic approach to addressing AMR to ensure all 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 at a launch of the new national policy yesterday.

AMR directly causes 1.27 million deaths and is associated with an additional 3.7 million deaths. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Nigeria, bear the brunt of this burden, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of the direct death toll.

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Salako acknowledged that despite previous efforts at curtailing the spread of the disease, a lot still needs to be done for the environment sector to come up to speed and be at par with the health sector concerning AMR management.

Implementation of the policy will result in the creation of AMR surveillance system in the environment sector, regulation of the discharge and distribution of antimicrobials into the environment and promotion of public knowledge and awareness on AMR and implication of indiscriminate antimicrobial discharge into the environment, among others.

The country representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation ad-interim in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Koffy Kouacou Dominique, said if countries do not do anything, 10 million people will die of the scourge. “It’s very important for all of us to do something,” he stated at the press conference in Abuja.

Dominique said the policy would help to strengthen the national, state, local and community-level capacities for anticipatory action, efficient response to agricultural threats, emergencies, and resilience building, as well as enhance food security, among other issues such as sustained natural resource management and climate action.