• WHO estimates that without urgent action and much wider awareness, infections resistant to antibiotics could cause up to 10 million additional deaths yearly by 2050.
• WHO set up the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System in 2015 to tackle this problem, but enormous gaps remain in official surveillance data.
A report shows that a lack of data on antimicrobial resistance limits understanding of its burden and slows national efforts to address the problem effectively.
The report on 'Using citizen-generated data to address drug resistance infections in Kenya' shows that an increase in drug resistance causes complex health problems, longer hospital stays and expensive treatments leading to less healthy and productive communities.
The report released on Friday indicates that despite the estimated scale of the problem, data on AMR is lacking.
Speaking at the virtual launch of the report, Health CAS Rashid Aman, said the central role of data in addressing AMR cannot be overemphasised.
“Surveillance data is important, and so is data from citizens on AMR. This is one of the most complex public health threats with root causes in multiple sectors ranging from health, food safety and agriculture to environment and trade,” he said.
He added that it presents the global, regional and national communities with extensive challenges considering its depth and breadth.
Aman said the government has taken several measures across various sectors to intensify action against AMR.
This includes the implementation of the National Policy and Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance, in addition to strategies on surveillance, communication, infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship.
This, he said, will go a long way towards addressing the challenges identified in the situation analysis on awareness, surveillance systems, infection prevention and control, rational use of antibiotics and research and development.
“We have so much data that lies out there with communities that we have failed to act on, simply because nobody even looks at what people in the communities are saying about this issue,” said Samuel Kariuki, acting director general, Kenya Medical Research Institute.
The report showed that citizens’ should change their practices in accessing and using antimicrobials.
“Investment in AMR is a public health priority and policymakers should see citizen-generated data as a valuable tool in the fight against AMR.
"Healthcare workers should drive patient engagement on AMR to tackle misinformation and improve levels of trust with citizens,” the report stated.
Simon Kibias, acting director Directorate of Health Standards Quality Assurance and Regulations at the Ministry of Health said the increase in organisms showing resistance to commonly available antibiotics has rendered standard treatments ineffective.
“It has also facilitated the spread of drug-resistant infections, leaving communities vulnerable. To ensure that we continue to benefit from antibiotics, practical approaches to the use of both existing and newly developed antibiotics are essential.
"As you are aware, the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged all aspects of healthcare including both recognition and management of serious acute bacterial infection and effective delivery of health care services including antimicrobial stewardship programmes globally,” Kibias said.
“We have seen that most Covid-19 patients in the hospital are being treated empirically with broad-spectrum antibiotics and the public resorting to self-medication with antimicrobial agents in the absence of a proper diagnosis.
"Due to the widespread use of these antibiotics, patients are more susceptible to develop infections with AMR organisms,” he said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)