HEALTH experts have issued an urgent call for Nigerian journalists to step up their reporting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), describing it as one of the most serious but least understood public health threats confronting the nation.
The warning came during a two-day capacity-building workshop in Abuja, organised by the Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria (IHVN) in collaboration with the Nigeria AMR Media Alliance (NAMA) under the Antimicrobial Stewardship Education Programme (A-STEP).
A Growing Crisis
Experts expressed grave concern that the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in humans, livestock production and agriculture are accelerating the emergence of drug-resistant infections, threatening decades of medical progress and putting millions of lives at risk.
Dr Patrick Dakum, Chief Executive Officer of IHVN, represented by Dr Nnakelu Eriobu, described AMR as a situation where bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites evolve to become resistant to medicines previously used to treat them. “Many Nigerians may already be experiencing the effects of antimicrobial resistance without realising it. People often continue taking medications without improvement and assume they need stronger drugs. In many cases, antimicrobial resistance may be the reason those medicines are no longer working,” he explained.
Nigeria’s Dire Statistics
The scale of the crisis is alarming. Dr Giorgia Sulis, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Communicable Disease Epidemiology, revealed that Nigeria ranks 20th out of 204 countries globally for AMR-related deaths and seventh in sub-Saharan Africa. She cited findings showing that antimicrobial resistance was linked to an estimated 227,000 deaths in Nigeria in 2021, with approximately 50,000 of those deaths directly caused by drug-resistant infections.
Dr Sulis warned that weak surveillance systems mean many resistant infections remain undetected, suggesting the actual burden could be significantly higher than current estimates indicate.
Self-Medication Fuelling Resistance
A major driver of the crisis is widespread self-medication. Dr Charity Oga-Omenka, Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and Principal Investigator of the A-STEP Project, said studies suggest that nearly 70 per cent of Nigerians obtain antibiotics without a prescription, contributing significantly to inappropriate use and treatment failure.
“The public needs to understand that demanding antibiotics without a prescription may be doing more harm than good,” she warned. She stressed the importance of proper diagnosis, noting that symptoms such as fever do not automatically indicate malaria or bacterial infections and should be confirmed through appropriate laboratory testing.
A Call for Media Action
Experts maintained that journalists have a unique responsibility to make the “silent pandemic” visible. Dr Sulis encouraged participants to broaden their coverage, stressing that AMR is not only a health issue but also has far-reaching implications for agriculture, the environment, governance and development. “AMR is not just a science or medicine story. It is also a health story, a policy story, an agriculture story, an environmental story and a development story,” she said.
Ojoma Akor, Founding Chairperson of the Nigeria AMR Media Alliance, described AMR as a “silent pandemic” that remains grossly underreported despite its enormous impact on healthcare. She urged journalists to go beyond covering official events by investigating antibiotic misuse, policy implementation, hospital practices and the human impact of drug-resistant infections.
Race Against Time
Experts called for stronger regulation of antibiotic sales, improved surveillance systems, increased public awareness and a coordinated “One Health” approach addressing the links between human health, animal health and the environment.
They warned that without urgent intervention, drug-resistant infections could make routine surgeries, childbirth, cancer treatment and the management of common infections significantly more dangerous. While acknowledging the scale of the challenge, stakeholders maintained that AMR can still be contained through responsible antibiotic use, stronger health systems, effective regulation and sustained public education.
In Nigeria, they said, the fight against antimicrobial resistance has become a race against time.
