Antimicrobial Resistance in Africa

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat with a potential to ruin gains made in modern medicine, and it will further limit several African countries from achieving specific objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals – in particular, Universal Health Coverage by 2030. This is mainly due to increasing prevalence of resistant organisms and the decreasing innovations for new therapeutics. In both low- and high-income countries, AMR generally increases health-care costs, length of stay in hospitals, morbidity and mortality. Current estimates show that AMR accounts for greater than 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. In economic terms, AMR will cost approximately 10 million lives and about US$100 trillion per year by 2050, with a significant burden expected in Africa if no action is taken to halt it (O'Neill 2016).