Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
SELF-MEDICATING, back-door pharmacies and use of left-over drugs are among the biggest causes of Anti Microbial Resistance (AMR) in Zimbabwe, a situation that has accounted for some deaths, the Sunday News can reveal.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the first global assessment of AMR revealed that there were five million deaths worldwide in 2019 that were attributed to drug resistant infections.
Although statistics for Zimbabwe were still being compiled by the time of going to print, the indications are that there is a sizable number of deaths from drug resistant infections.
Drug resistance or antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is when an organism, pathogen, bug becomes resistant to antimicrobials designed to inhibit or kill them leading to effects like higher medical costs of securing an alternative drug, prolonged hospital stays and even increased mortality.
WHO notes that Zimbabwe, like many other countries in the world, has not escaped the negative impact of drug resistant organisms and the impact they have on health, well-being, food security and economic growth, they also gave some of the reasons for the increase in AMR.
“We are yet to scientifically gather drivers of AMR in Zimbabwe, but we suspect overuse, underuse of antibiotics as a major driver of AMR in Zimbabwe.
Many people do not afford proper medical care hence they end up using left-over antibiotics or buy antibiotics at black market (this means the bug, pathogen is subjected to low antibiotic doses hence it will not die, but learn to survive in the presence of such antibiotic.
“For the overuse side, a lot of people use antibiotics to treat conditions that do not require antibiotics like influenza or colds or flue which are caused by viruses.
Antibiotics are suitable for bacterial conditions and never required to treat conditions caused by viruses,” said Dr Stanley Midzi from WHO.
However, in a bid to address the problem, the Government has defined several actions in the National Development Strategy 1 such as improving access to essential medicines, strengthening the regulation and reinforcing the rationale use of medicines.
The Government has also included key activities in the National Health Strategy (2021-2015) that will ensure uninterrupted access to high quality medicines such as strengthening the capabilities of hospital medicines and thematic committees, enforcing rational prescribing, dispensing and use of pharmaceutical commodities.
“As the Government of Zimbabwe, we take AMR seriously and it has the highest level of commitment and support from the political leaders. We have done this through supporting the three different ministries involved,” said Dr Munyaradzi Dobbie, Chief Director of Public Health in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, who is the AMR focal person.
In support of the efforts by the Government, the United Nations Country Team has made tackling the rise of AMR, a priority in Zimbabwe’s United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (ZUNSDCF) 2021-2026, a move that is set to be the game changer as it will effectively link AMR to NDS1.
This, they said, will ensure strong governance, investment and accountability, which is important for the long-term sustainability of the AMR programme. – @NyembeziMu
Online Reporter