The Federal Government has acknowledged gaps in Nigeria’s antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance, warning that available estimates may not fully reflect the country’s burden of drug-resistant infections.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during a joint One Health ministerial briefing ahead of the fifth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR.
The conference, scheduled to hold in Abuja from December 6 to 8, 2026, will be the first edition hosted on African soil. It is themed “One Health: Advancing Global AMR Commitments to Local Action.”
Pate said Nigeria had recorded evidence of antimicrobial resistance in hospitals, but gaps in surveillance had made it difficult to establish accurate national estimates of its prevalence.
He acknowledged that the figures available to Nigeria might differ from those of countries with stronger surveillance systems.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites develop resistance to medicines used to treat infections, making the drugs less effective or ineffective.
The development has raised concerns about Nigeria’s capacity to monitor drug-resistant infections and underscores the need to strengthen surveillance systems to guide public health interventions.
