A new study has attributed lack of laboratory capacity and erratic use of available antibiotics to the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
The study carried out across 14 countries including Kenya found that only 1.3 per cent of medical laboratories conduct any bacteriology testing.
It was carried out by the Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership, a consortium spearheaded by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine.
Director of science and new initiatives at the African Society for Laboratory Medicine Dr Pascale Ondoa said Africa is struggling to fight drug-resistant pathogens, just like the rest of the world.
“But our struggle is compounded by the fact that we don’t have an accurate picture of how antimicrobial resistance is impacting our citizens and health systems. This study shines much-needed light on the crisis within the crisis,” Ondoa said.
The study gives insights on the under-reported depth of the AMR crisis across Africa and lays out urgent policy recommendations to address the emergency.
A recent study estimated that, in 2019, nearly 1.3 million deaths globally were attributed to antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections.
Africa was found to have the highest mortality rate from AMR infections in the world, with 24 deaths per 100,000 attributable to AMR.
“Across Africa, even where data on antimicrobial resistance is collected, it is not always accessible. It is often recorded by hand and rarely consolidated or shared with policy makers.
"As a result, health experts are flying blind and cannot develop and deploy policies that would limit or curtail antimicrobial resistance,” ASLM chief executive officer Nqobile Ndlovu said.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records spanning from 2016 to 2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Eswatini, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon and Cameroon.
It also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
The consortium found that across the 14 countries, clinical and treatment data are not being linked to laboratory results, making it hard to understand what’s driving AMR.
Out of almost 187,000 samples tested for antimicrobial resistance, around 88 per cent had no information on patients’ clinical profile.
This includes diagnosis or origin of infection and comorbidities or antimicrobial usage.
Also, the presence of indwelling device such as urinary catheters, feeding tubes and wound drains, which are often associated with development of healthcare-associated infection.
The remaining 12 per cent had incomplete information.
Africa CDC AMR programme coordinator Dr Yewande Alimi said the disconnect between patient data and antimicrobial resistance results makes it incredibly difficult to provide accurate guidelines for patient care and wider public health policies.
Alimi said this is also exacerbated by the extreme antimicrobial resistance burden.
Based on the findings, MAAP is calling for a drastic increase in the quality and quantity of AMR and AMC data being collected across the continent.
Also a revised AMR control strategies and research priorities.
Director and president, One Health Trust Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan said the future of modern medicine and our ability to treat infectious diseases reliably hinges on our ability to control antimicrobial resistance.
“This study is an important step forward for Africa’s health systems and the health of people across the continent. I hope MAAP inspires more investment in essential data collection and desperately needed resources,” Laxminarayan said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
