Over the counter drugs, prescriptions and pain killers purchased on the street may no longer treat ailments, Pfizer has warned.

The challenge is as result of drug abuse, wrong prescription, unfinished medication course, and self-medication.

Dr. Kodjo Soroh, Medical Director West Africa Pfizer, explained that the above practices have resulted in a condition called Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines.

He said this at media round table discussion on zoom yesterday.

This change makes infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Currently, AMR is one of the biggest threats to global health today and can affect anyone, of any age, in any country.

Dr. Doroh warned that if this pattern continues unchecked, minor infections could become life- threatening, serious infections could become impossible to treat, and many routine medical procedures could become too risky to perform.

“Without action by governments, industry, and society, AMR is expected to cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050,” he stressed.

He added that dome bacteria are already “resistant” to common antibiotics and when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it is often harder and more expensive to treat the infection.

“Losing the ability to treat serious bacterial infections is a major threat to public health,” he warned.

Prof. Kwame Ohene Buabeng, Clinical Pharmacologist and a Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said the challenge is increasingly becoming a major problem by the day.

He added that AMR increases morbidity and mortality, and is associated with high economic costs,due to its health care burden.

Prof Buabeng postulated that adoption of antimicrobial stewardship programme (ASP) to fight resistance and protect public health is essential for the country.

AMS is an organizational or system-wide health-care strategy, designed to promote, improve, monitor, and evaluate the rational use of antimicrobials to preserve their future effectiveness, along with the promotion and protection of public health.

He said ASP has been very successful in promoting antimicrobials’ appropriate use by implementing evidence-based interventions.

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Dr. Yaw A. Amoako, Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of KNUST, Consultant Infectious Diseases Physician and Research Scientist at Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), said Antimicrobial stewardship programmes hope to optimise the use of antimicrobials, improve patient outcomes, reduce AMR and health-care-associated infections, and save health-care costs amongst others.

Pfizer’s position on AMR is that governments and the public health community must work together with industry to take further action and support measures that will enable continued innovation in the development of new antibiotics and vaccines to help curb the spread of AMR.

AMR is a silent threat to public health and needs urgent attention.

The UN estimates that up to 10 million deaths could be caused by superbugs and associated forms of antimicrobial resistance, matching the annual global death toll of cancer.