Building knowledge and evidence base on antimicrobial resistance in Africa, through ‘One Health’ based surveillance

Abstract

Antimicrobial Resistance is threatening to upset much of the progress that developing countries have made in the healthcare domain over the last few decades. Though there are issues with the projected morbidity and mortality figures, there is a general agreement that the data collection processes need to be strengthened, especially in the context of developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The high burden of disease associated with communicable diseases in Africa, increases the overall antibiotic use and weakens the healthcare system of the continent. Even though the scale of antibiotic use may be lower than in some other regional contexts, the high burden of infectious disease makes antimicrobial resistance a priority in the continental context. In human health sector, antibiotic resistance is becoming a problem in community acquired infections as well as healthcare associated infections. This situation is fuelled by the rampant misuse of antibiotics across the African countries; and the surveillance efforts have been quite weak in this regard. Antibiotic use is increasing in food animal production too, as the continent is moving towards various intensification methods to improve productivity. Therefore the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance patterns in animal health and food animal production, has a lot of significance in understanding the potential threats to human health and food security. But for any surveillance system to be effective, especially in the context of AMR, it needs to be truly ‘One Health’ in its approach. The division between animal health and human health is not scientific, but cultural in its character. This has to be broken down to create a proper ‘One Health’ surveillance system with data integration possible at different levels.