By African View | July 2025
A new groundbreaking study has revealed a worrying trend: drug-resistant infections are spreading fast across 14 African countries. The findings raise urgent calls for stronger lab testing and better health data to stop hard-to-treat infections in their tracks.
Led by Africa CDC and partners, the study analyzed over 187,000 lab results from countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, and others. The results? Disturbing levels of resistance to life-saving antibiotics, especially in Ghana and Malawi.
In some countries, over 70% of samples were resistant to common hospital antibiotics, making everyday infections tougher and costlier to treat.
The study attributes the reason behind the surge as overuse of antibiotics, weak lab systems, and poor health data. In fact, less than 2% of facilities can test for bacterial infections, and most records are still handwritten.
Older adults and hospitalized patients are most at risk, researchers found.
“This is a million-dollar question for Africa: Where do we start?” said Dr. Yewande Alimi of Africa CDC. “We must act now—together.”
The message is clear: Africa must invest in digital labs, routine testing, and smart health planning before drug resistance becomes our next silent pandemic.
Source- AfricaCDC.org
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