Strengthened focus on multidrug-resistant bacteria in Africa

Multidrug-resistant bacteria infect 800,000 people worldwide every year, according to figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC.
Multi-resistant bacteria are found in humans, animals, plants, and the environment. If antibiotics are not used wisely, bacteria can develop antibiotic resistance, where harmless infections can become life-threatening. Resistance to antibiotics is a growing problem globally, and the World Health Organization, WHO, considers it to be one of the biggest threats to human health.

Figures from the Global Burden of Bacterial Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) show that every year around 1.27 million people die from multidrug-resistant bacteria. The figure is expected to rise to ten million people annually by 2050. That is more people than die of cancer today.

30,000 genomes mapped in Africa

With the new grant for the SeqAfrica project, one of the goals is to enhance resistance monitoring through whole-genome sequencing, which enables the rapid and reasonably inexpensive mapping of bacteria's complete DNA profile.

"SeqAfrica helps African countries build laboratory capacity and reliable data on the extent of antibiotic resistance", explains Professor Rene S. Hendriksen, Programme Director of SeqAfrica at DTU National Food Institute.

The first phase of SeqAfrica has strengthened research in Africa and mapped more than 20,000 bacterial and 10,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes as well as trained employees locally in Africa. 

More local facilities to strengthen knowledge

The grant from the Fleming Fund means that monitoring of antibiotic resistance can now be extended.

"The second phase of the SeqAfrica project is about democratisation, where we will strengthen the monitoring of antimicrobial resistance and disseminate and anchor data locally. Therefore, we are setting up local facilities in addition to regional ones so that antimicrobial resistance and trends in resistance can be quickly located and handled locally", says Rene S. Hendriksen and elaborates:

"It will be easier to pave the way for national policies in Africa that mandate the reduction and prevention of antibiotic resistance when we can build resistance surveillance capacity deep down the surveillance pyramid and the health system, as well as involve general practitioners in countries and sectors”, says Rene S. Hendriksen.