As Africa gets ready for the Diagnostic and AMR Convention under the theme Speeding Up Diagnostic Advancements and Cooperation to Fight AMR ...
As Africa gets ready for the Diagnostic and AMR Convention under the themeSpeeding Up Diagnostic Advancements and Cooperation to Fight AMR and Promote Health Security in Africa,The continent is confronting a serious situation: antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is increasing quickly, while the financial support that established Africa's diagnostic and monitoring systems is swiftly vanishing.
AMR—when harmful microbes develop the ability to resist treatments that save lives—continues to gradually undermine public health achievements in a quiet but persistent manner.
Over a million people die annually due to drug-resistant infections, with the toll projected to double by 2050 if urgent measures are not intensified.
Diagnoses play a central role in this challenge. They offer information that directs antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) and infection prevention and control (IPC).
However, capacity remains extremely limited: only 1.3% of laboratories in Africa were found to be able to perform basic bacteriology testing, as per the MAAP analysis. Despite significant advancements over the last decade, most of Africa's diagnostic and AMR surveillance systems have been developed with external funding.
Currently, as global funding for healthcare systems decreases, with over $10 billion in reductions anticipated in 2025, these achievements are in danger.
Africa is expected to be the most affected. By 2025, 80% of the countries facing the greatest reductions in health funding will be located in Africa, partly due to major donors shifting their focus on development aid. Regarding AMR, the consequences are particularly severe.
The Fleming Fund, a highly influential initiative in AMR monitoring, lab enhancement, and training across the continent, is coming to an end.
However, only 5% of African nations currently possess sufficiently funded action plans for antimicrobial resistance, and very few have established domestic funding mechanisms to maintain AMR systems once external support ceases.
This gap highlights a more fundamental systemic problem. AMR and diagnostics have never been fully acknowledged as key components of Africa's health security framework.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant emergency spending, the long-term crisis of AMR has not received the same level of political attention, despite projections that AMR could result in more deaths than HIV, TB, and malaria combined by 2050.
Diagnostics continue to be one of the least supported parts of African healthcare systems. Numerous facilities do not have working microbiology laboratories, equipment, reagents, or quality control mechanisms. Without proper diagnostics, doctors are compelled to use trial-and-error treatment, leading to improper antibiotic usage and increasing resistance.
Data systems encounter comparable limitations: laboratory information systems, genomic platforms, and AMR dashboards continue to be disjointed and largely influenced by external funding. With no ongoing investment, Africa may lose critical AMR data flows that aid in national decision-making and global early warning mechanisms.
The impact of these budget reductions is significant. Healthcare professionals will face greater challenges in treating patients effectively, resulting in more instances of treatment failure. Neonatal sepsis, pneumonia, surgical infections, and typhoid will be more difficult to control as resistant strains continue to spread.
Essential and reserve antibiotics will become increasingly difficult to obtain. Surveillance centers might shut down, diminishing the continent's capacity to identify new threats. Healthcare professionals, already overburdened, will face even greater challenges. Additionally, disparities will grow, with rural and poorly resourced areas being affected the most.
Yet there is a way ahead. AMR and AMS, when backed by diagnostics, reinforce the basis of quality care: correct diagnosis, informed prescription, infection prevention and control, supply chain reliability, and clinical governance.
These are the identical foundational elements needed for pandemic readiness. Therefore, funding AMR is also a commitment to Africa's health security..
To safeguard current achievements, African governments should focus on AMR and diagnostics within national health budgets instead of depending on external funding cycles. Nations can implement minimum essential laboratory packages, like those created by ASLM, to ensure fundamental operations continue during financial changes.
Regional organizations, including the AU, Africa CDC, ASLM, and ECSA-HC, need to promote collective investments, innovation funds, and solutions driven by Africa. Global partners, such as the Global Fund, should be involved to maintain essential AMR functions as local funding increases.
The upcoming Diagnostic and AMR Convention provides a relevant opportunity to address these realities. Africa's AMR issue is no longer a distant threat, but a current and escalating crisis. Maintaining the systems that safeguard the continent against drug-resistant infections is not only a technical requirement; it is a responsibility spanning generations.
Africa must take action now—before previously achieved progress is lost.
