THE DANGEROUS EASE OF GETTING ANTIBIOTICS IN NIGERIA.

By Ojo Deborah

When the average student experiences the classic triad of headache, fever, and weakness, a “diagnosis” is quickly reached by the ever-knowing roommate. The next step then becomes getting an antibiotic or antimalarial (like those that end with -tem) Often, the dosage is not completely used when the symptoms cease and the leftover is kept away for future purposes.

While this sounds like a good plan, it is a recipe for greater peril. Misusing medication, especially taking antibiotics for parasitic infections like malaria will not eliminate the threat. Instead it promotes Antimicrobial Resistance(AMR). Survivors from the incomplete dosage acclimatize themselves to the medication and mutate to resist it the next time it is introduced into the system.

Antimicrobial resistance is listed as one of the top 10 global health threats by the World Health Organisation. The impact is larger for low-income and middle-income communities where the barrier is very low. In some shops, the ‘chemist’ prescribes antibiotics for all illnesses without restriction.

Antibiotics are recommended and sold over the counters without restriction. Although there are regulations against this act, like many others, it exists only on paper.

This is a contrast to the experience of many Nigerians in Diaspora, who often find it a culture shock that pharmacists would never sell antibiotics to them without a prescription and doctors wouldn’t prescribe it without some tests to ascertain the cause of illnesses.

In Nigeria, no pharmacists would lose their license if a patient’s surgery becomes complicated due to antimicrobial resistance.

While it is easy to blame failing institutions, we must also question our habits. Skipping professional consultation at the University Clinic to get self-prescribed medications, especially antibiotics is a debt the future will be asked to pay. The University clinic exists to ensure good health of its students, taking advantage of this utility is better in both the short and long run.