The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) says many patients in the hospitals are overprescribed antibiotics that have a higher risk of bacterial resistance selection which is above the 60 percent target set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, stated this on Sunday in commemoration of the 2022 National Antimicrobial Awareness (AMR) Week.
He said seven out of 10 persons in the community access antibiotics outside licensed health facilities or pharmacies.
He said globally, antimicrobials are increasingly becoming ineffective due to the inappropriate use of these drugs, including the prescription of and use of antibiotics, which target only bacteria, during viral infections (like the flu) or as a growth promoter in agriculture.
Quoting WHO, he said there were 15 priority antibiotic-resistant pathogens causing the greatest threat to human and animal health, four of which had been detected in Nigeria.