The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has intensified its efforts to combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Nigeria by implementing stricter regulations and surveillance measures.

Dr Tunde Sigbeku, Deputy Director and AMR-OH Focal Person at NAFDAC, said this on Thursday in Lagos.

Sigbeku spoke during a five-day training session for journalists, civil society organisations (CSOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) focused on AMR.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the training was organised by the Fleming Fund Country Grant (FFCG II).

The project is supported by the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Sigbeku highlighted the dangers of AMR, emphasising that it poses a severe threat to human, animal, and environmental health.

He said that NAFDAC had implemented several policies, including banning the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock and fish production.

“AMR is real and with us in Nigeria. We have cases in hospitals, including babies born with colistin resistance, and it is also present on farms.

“We are taking steps like prohibiting the sale of branded medicated feed in open markets.

We are also restricting the use of certain veterinary drugs in food-producing animals, such as Carbadox, Nitrofural, and Olaquindox.

“We are strengthening port inspections to detect substandard and falsified antibiotics using advanced technologies like TRUSCAN and the Mobile Authentication Service (MAS),” he said l.

According to him, recognising that AMR requires a multi-sectoral approach.

He said that the agency had established collaborations with international and national stakeholders.

He listed such stakeholders to include the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the Fleming Fund.

“NAFDAC is also monitoring the importation and use of human and veterinary antibiotics to ensure compliance with national regulations,” he said.

Sigbeku stressed the need for continuous public awareness and collaboration with research institutions.

“We must educate, advocate, and act now.

“Increased surveillance, research, and policy enforcement are crucial to preventing a post-antibiotic era where common infections become deadly,” he said.

As Nigeria joins the global fight against AMR, he urged healthcare providers, farmers, and the general public to use antibiotics responsibly to preserve their effectiveness for future generations.

NAN recalls that the FFCG II has been instrumental in Nigeria’s fight against AMR.

Managed by Management Sciences for Health (MSH), the project collaborates with the One Health Ministries.

They are the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), as well as the Federal Ministry of Environment.

The aim is to implement a coordinated, multisectoral approach addressing AMR across human, animal, and environmental health.

Aligned with Nigeria’s FFCG Phase 2 Country Investment Strategy (CIS), the project focuses on four priority areas:

Producing quality AMR data, analysing data effectively, sharing analysis with decision-makers and promoting sustainable investment to counter AMR.

Through these efforts, the project plays a crucial role in strengthening Nigeria’s response to AMR, a growing public health concern.

The Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in Edo, Mrs Frances Ben-Ushie, on Thursday launched a foundation to advocate for the eradication of sickle cell disorder in Nigeria.

The foundation, known as Florish Foundation for Women and Youth, was unveiled at the ongoing orientation for the 2024 Batch C Stream II corps members in the state.

Mrs Ben-Ushie, who is the President/Founder of the foundation, said it was aimed to sensitise Nigerians on the dangers of sickle cell disorder, leveraging the spread of corps member volunteers.

The NYSC coordinator revealed that she was inspired to launch the foundation after discovering that Nigeria had a high prevalence of sickle cell disorder.

“I stumbled into the fact that Nigeria has a lot of people that have sickle cell disorder, and people are still, out of ignorance and carelessness, still having children with the disorder,” she said.

She noted that the foundation would target women and youth, who were the most vulnerable to the disorder.

“So what we are doing is that we want to start from Edo state and move to other areas, South and other parts of the country,” she said.

Mrs Ben-Ushie emphasised that the foundation would work with NYSC members to carry out the advocacy about the disorder in their respective host communities.

“We have 1,737 corps members for the 2024 batch C stream II orientation, and they will be carrying out the advocacy with the councils, ministries of health and education,” she said.

She noted that the corps members are a good demography to carry out the advocacy, as they are spread across all the 18 local government areas in the state.

The Edo NYSC boss lauded the Director-General of NYSC, the Minister of Youth, and Gov. Monday Okpebholo for their support in launching the foundation.

The birth of the foundation, she said, was as a result of a training on how to set up an NGO organised by the NYSC for some officers in 2022.

Mrs Ben-Ushie explained that the foundation was a private initiative, separate from her role as NYSC Coordinator.

“This is not the state coordinator or NYSC, though, because the next coordinator may not have been trained by NYSC to carry out this assignment,” she said.

Ben-Ushie announced free genotype tests for corps members, who did not know their genotype.

In his lecture, a medical practitioner, Dr Udi Ese educated the corps members on the causes, preventative measures as well as management of the sickle cell disease.

Ese blamed sickle cell disorder for most of the children-related diseases in Nigeria, usually attributed to witches or ogbanje.

Rokib Alata and Juliet Uzoma, who are corps volunteer advocates pledged their commitment to spread information about the disorder wherever deployed for primary assignment.

Uganda has started a trial vaccination programme for the strain of Ebola viral infection that is behind the country’s latest outbreak. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of confirmed cases has risen to three.

Earlier, the East African country announced an outbreak of Ebola in the capital, Kampala, with a single case, a nurse who died on Jan. 29.

Ministry of Health Spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona told Reuters that the total number of cases has now risen to three, with two additional cases from the family of the deceased nurse.

In a post on the X platform, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO director for Africa, said Uganda had also started a clinical trial of a vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola.

Currently, there is no approved vaccine for that strain. The existing vaccination is for the Zaire strain, which is behind a recent outbreak in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

“This marks a major milestone in public health emergency response and demonstrates the power of collaboration for global health security,” Moeti said.

“If proven effective, the vaccine will further strengthen measures to protect communities from future outbreaks.”

Bruce Kirenga, who heads Makerere Lung Institute, a research organisation that is doing the trial, told local media during the launch of the vaccination that it had been developed by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and that the institute had received about 2,460 doses.

The health ministry also said that the trial would target contacts of confirmed cases.

A high-fatality disease, Ebola infection symptoms include haemorrhage, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue.