Anti-Microbial Resistance Strategies Need Urgent Attention To Prevent Unnecessary Deaths In Africa
Worried by the increasing cases of AMR, the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) has spearheaded a multi-year, multi-country study, carried out by the Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial use Partnership (MAAP), and data from 14 sub-Saharan countries show that only five out of the 15 antibiotic-resistant pathogens – a bacterium, virus, or other microorganisms that can cause disease –designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a priority are being consistently tested, and that all five demonstrated high resistance. The study results provide insights into the AMR burden and antimicrobial consumption in the 14 countries where most available AMR data is based only on statistical modeling. The effort by MAAP is the first of its kind to systematically collect, process, and evaluate large quantities of AMR and antimicrobial consumption (AMC) data in Africa.