Ghanaians have been urged to get involved in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
This according to the Ministry of Health, is because antimicrobials contribute to an increase in resistant bacteria and may result in patient harm.
In an interview, the Head of Ghana’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) at the Ministry of Health, who is also the Head of the Drug Policy Unit at the Ministry, Dr. Saviour Yevutsey, underscored the importance of creating awareness.
“That is why we are calling on everybody to get involved because one surest way is to prevent the resistant developments and to prevent its spread in the general population. Because if that happens, we may not have the antibiotics that we require to treat them. So that’s why we are calling on everybody.”
“So, one of the interventions that the Ministry of Health and the world at large have put in place is to create awareness that antimicrobial resistance is real. It gives us so much trouble when you have resistant bacteria in your system; it will lead to treatment failure. You have to stay in the hospital for so many days. They have to change to newer, very potent, and very expensive antibiotics before you can get treated.”
Dr. Yevutsey stated this when Ghana joined the world to mark World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) 2022 at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
In his view, antibiotic-resistant infection is a growing concern, and this can be reduced through key interventions such as hand hygiene.
“One surest way is to practice hand hygiene because it has been found from research that the water that the farmers use in treating some of them [water vegetables] contains this resistant bacteria that you cannot say you will not eat, but so far they are going to be processed before eating. You the one who is processing it you must practice hand hygiene and wash them well. Wash the vegetables well before you put them on the table before eating or before you put it for sale to any other person so that we don’t spread the resistant bacteria that are found in this water stream that they are using to water the vegetables.”
He asserted that the fight against antimicrobial resistance must be a shared responsibility among all stakeholders.
“One sector cannot fight this battle. Government must be involved, and create the enabling environment for research to be done. Some of the interventions need governments to call in so that the government will provide the necessary amenities to do that. For instance, we should be able to identify this resistant bacteria in our hospital settings through the laboratories so it’s not every hospital or even district hospital that has the ability to do cultural insensitivity. That’s why every stakeholder, and partners donors can also support. The fact is that antimicrobial resistance is not only for human health, it is also happening in animal health, poultry farms, pigs, and any other farms that you can think about, aquaculture, and fisheries.
So there is a need for policymakers, donors, partners, hospital practitioners, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, hospital administration, and everybody to come on board because we all have a role to play in fighting this antimicrobial resistance.”
He further warned that resistance to antibiotics could become the number one cause of death by 2050.
“So what I said is that, if nothing is done by 2050, it has been estimated based on the current data that in 2050, every 30 seconds antimicrobial resistance could result in one person’s death. That is a serious situation.”
This year, the theme of WAAW is “Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together.” Antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. That means the germs are not killed and continue to grow.
