…and if we begin to face a threat of undoings in our supposed success against pathogenic micro-organism induced diseases, are we not seemingly sent back to the dark ages even as we claim to have advanced? When recounting the history of medicine, few triumphs can be compared to the emergence and widespread use of antimicrobials, because indeed, it was a win for the world. Without mincing words, Alexander Fleming’s serendipitous discovery of penicillin on his petri dish brought about a new era in biomedicine. Because just right in our presence, pathogens that had wreaked havoc for generations, perpetuating morbidity and mortality in their wake were suddenly at the mercy of the new chemical armamentarium deployed to the fight, and just like that, infectious diseases receded before the ever-rising tide of antimicrobials, and everyone was optimistic and in fact, predicted a swift and righteous victory over the scourge of infection.
Yet, since about a decade plus now, the who’s and who’s of the world has repeatedly raised concern on the threat posed on global health by this resistance of microorganisms. It now seems that all of the world’s arsenal flowing in the path of our olden had victory against micro-organism and their illicit pathogenic infliction is now powerless. Could we say the drugs being produced are now impotent? Could we say our research is now flawed? Or that human is now evolved to have a different genetic makeup? Or that all of these microorganisms are now wiser and smart enough to elude annihilation? Well, lots of questions like these are very much relevant. But as we ask these questions, it will be more reasonable to retrace our steps to what the real causes are, what really could have postured the world, Africa, in fact Nigeria, to this direction of looming global, continental, national health breakdown.
Nationally for example, this issue is really pacing very fast. Diseases that are meant to be treated in a short time are becoming difficult and treatment elusive. Many blame that Nigeria, to start with, is facing a serious organized criminal unleash of “fake drug production,” flooding the market day and night, and yes, this is a very reasonable claim. I mean, what more could cause impotency of a drug than poor or flawed production? But if this would be the only cause, it would have been a peculiar issue to Nigeria, instead, it transcends even beyond.
Without prejudice, the individual practice can be directly linked to this whole issue. To simply put, consistent intake of drugs leads to making it impotent to the individual overtime. The department of Health of the Australian Government in one of their submissions, noted that “using a drug regularly can lead to tolerance (resistance), your body becomes used to the drug and needs increasingly larger doses to achieve the same effect or even, becomes less potent.” This attitude, unfortunately, is almost a daily thing with many individuals. Rising from the insistent over-beaten issue of self-prescription, as almost little as it appears to be. The US National Library in one of their publications in 2013 stated that “Self-medication is a global phenomenon and potential contributor to human pathogen resistance to antibiotics. The adverse consequences of such practices should always be emphasized to the community and steps to curb it.” I think we all can agree that many people are guilty of this act, such that at any feeling of discomfort, almost everyone is now medical personnel in their home. Concluding which drug their body loves, diagnosing themselves of what they are suffering from, taking antibacterial drugs for anti-fungal cause.
A user on twitter @the_beardedsina narrated his experience saying “A patient comes to the hospital. Has been sick for a week, having fever for days. Blood culture is done, and result shows that he’s resistant to the following drugs (antibiotics) Ceftriaxone, Ampicillin, Cipro, Levofloxacin, Metronidazole, Cefepime, Meropenem, Piperacillin, Gentamicin, Amikacin, Nitrofurantoin, Vancomycin, Chloramphenicol.” How can we survive this??
On the extended part, how antimicrobials found their way to being applied in agriculture is another problem. The rise of industrial farming now has a full play in the utilization of antimicrobials prophylactically in livestock not to basically treat diseases, but increase growth rates. Yet unlike in the clinical setting, in agriculture the use of antimicrobials is not subject to the same oversight or guidelines for prescribing. The lack of consistent regulation permits wide variation in terms of the classes and concentrations of antimicrobials used in agriculture. In 2021, an estimated 54% of the 11 million kilograms of antimicrobials sold for use in domestic agriculture in the United States belonged to the “medically important” category.
Conclusively, this issue calls for a great deal of proper sensitization and awareness of the general public about the dangers of antimicrobial resistance, conservative preventive care should be advocated for, people should subject themselves to being cared for, pharmaceutically by those who are trained for it, commercial use of antimicrobial drugs should be well cautioned, and all necessary agency shouldered with the responsibility of this oversight on a national level, continental level, and global level should come in to swift play before it gets out of hand, and wreaks havoc again on global health, sending us back into dark ages of struggling with mortality and economic crushing effects of micro-organism torment. The world at large has a lot at hand to deal with, and we should not be ridden by a fight we should be celebrating our wins over.