The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and other stakeholders have called for the integration of antimicrobial stewardship in policy frameworks and health facilities in the country.
The director general of the agency, Dr Jide Idris made the call yesterday during the Commonwealth Partnership for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) Programme Sharing and Learning Event, and the Africa Leadership-Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) Fellowship Graduation in Abuja.
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) involves a set of actions that ensure optimal use of antimicrobials to improve patient outcomes, while reducing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Antimicrobials usually called drugs or medicines are substances used to treat, kill or stop a wide variety of infectious diseases in humans and animals such as antibiotics, antivirals, antifungal and antiparasitic
WRepresented by the Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Prevention and Control Programme Coordinator at the NCDC, Dr Tochi Okwor, he said NCDC , in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and global partners, must remain committed to ensuring that the impact of CwPAMS is institutionalized and scaled across the country.
He said, "We must ensure sustainability, antimicrobial stewardship must be embedded in our health system culture. It must be integrated into policy frameworks and be supported by strong governance structure."
He said doing so was important because antimicrobial resistance is one of the most pressing global health threats, with Nigeria at significant risk due to a high burden of infectious diseases and increasing anti microbial misuse.
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He said if left unchecked, it will compromise patient care, undermine medical advancements and impose economic losses.
He said that strengthening Antimicrobial Stewardship, lab capacity, surveillance, and governance structures is therefore critical to reversing the trend.
"Through CwPAMS, we have leveraged the Nigeria-UK partnership, facilitated bi-directional learning between health institutions in both countries," he said.
He also said that the initiative has strengthened AMS structure in multiple Nigerian hospitals, and has trained over 15,400 health workers, improved point prevalence surveys for antimicrobial consumption and developed guidelines, policies and AMS action plans in key health facilities.
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Walter Kazadi who was represented by Dr Laxmikant Chavan, said AMR requires a multi faceted, multi dimensional approach.
He said AMS is important in the country because of the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and other medicines.
He said there was need to have AMS in at least 50% of the country's 40,000 hospitals.
Estelle Mbadiwe of Ducit Blue Solutions, said the organization was working in collaboration with the NCDC to map sites, to identify gaps and address the challenges.
