Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the resistance of a microorganism (bacterium, fungus, virus, or parasite) to a drug that was originally effective in treating infections caused by that microorganism.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) resistance to antimicrobials is a natural and inevitable biological phenomenal that can be amplified or accelerated by a variety of factors and practices that facilitate 'selective pressure', (an agent of differential mortality or fertility that tends to make a population change genetically).
The microbes which adapt and survive carry genes for resistance, which can be passed on to the next generation of microbes and also, in some bacteria, across different species. The selection pressure is utmost when antimicrobials are used irrationally in health and veterinary sectors.
Microbes naturally develop resistance to antimicrobials over time; however, AMR is accelerated by the overuse and misuse of antimicrobial medicines, improper infection control or prevention practices, and no adherence to treatment regimens.
The escalating AMR is a global public health threat with extensive health, economic and societal implications. Infections caused by resistant microbes result in longer duration of illness, higher mortality rates and increased costs associated with alternative treatment. Such infections also fail to respond to treatment, resulting in prolonged illness and greater risk of death. Treatment failures also lead to longer periods of infectivity, which increase the number of infected people moving in the community and thus expose the general population to the risk of contracting a resistant strain of infection.
Recently, Food, Medicine and Health Care Administration and Control of Ethiopia (FMHACA) organized a three day awareness raising training for journalists on the prevention and containment of Antimicrobial Resistance and Rational Medicine Use (RMU) in the city of Adama.
The objective of the training was to provide concepts to media practitioners on prevention and containment of antimicrobial resistance and rational medicine use; medicines safety and drug/ substance abuse with the view to facilitate information dissemination to the public on RMU and AMR and discuss the challenges faced in raising the awareness of the public. With this, media professionals are expected to develop a plan of action to increase awareness of the public.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Keyredine Redi, FMHACA General Director explained that such training for journalists would indirectly help to reach and raise the awareness of the general public. Because the media has the power to influence the society's attitude, hence would enable the authority in creating awareness about this critical issue.
He also added that the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance are complex problems fuelled by the knowledge, expectations and interactions of prescribers and the patients, and regulatory environment. Patient reluctance to follow recommended treatment is another major problem.
Easy access of antimicrobials in developing countries and myths amongst communities about their use exert an equally important influence on the emergence of resistance, he noted.
According to Keyiredine as antimicrobial resistance of microorganisms makes it difficult to treat communicable diseases in cost efficient manner, due attention should be given to preventing such occurrences. In fact, besides being very much pricey to treat as such cases require the application of expensive medicine (if available at the first place), microorganisms that cause diseases build such resistance capacity would make it difficult to control communicable diseases. Further, as it takes a very long period of time to treat such cases, it would also have a profound impact on the patient's socio-economic life.
In the training, the health professionals noted that to solve the above stated problems, there are several methods that should be adopted. The first one is teaching the public and health professional about AMR. This requires raising the awareness of the public about rational use of antibiotic medicines.
The other methods include preventing communicable disease, conducting research to understand the main causes of diseases, reforming essential antimicrobial medicines accessibility, following up the quality and standard of medicines, promoting the proper usage of medicine, putting in place a coordinated health service, and producing trained health professional. And in addition, it is also vital to make researches to come up with vaccine for antimicrobial medicines.
Heran Gerba Deputy Director at FMHACA said researches show more than half of the antimicrobial medicines are used in health institutions/by health professionals as well as consumers of the medicines in an inappropriate manner. Besides other negative health consequences, this unwarranted medicine prescription and dispense and patients' unwise way of medicine utilization is the major cause of AMR. Thus, the major responsible bodies in curbing AMR are health professionals and consumers of such medicines, she added.
She also added there is a need for stakeholders' cooperation in preparing health service direction in raising the awareness of prescribers and users to combat the emerging problem of antimicrobial resistance.
The prevention and containment of resistance has a common approach and requires integrated and well-coordinated efforts at the national level. It requires ownership and active participation by several stakeholders. In this regard, the role of the media among others is indispensible as it has the medium to reach a large number of people at once, she emphasized.
BY ESSEYE MENGSTE
Road map to ensure education quality
Ethiopia has one of the highest enrollment rates in Africa. The number of primary schools has almost tripled from 1996 to 2015, while student enrollment grew from less than 3 million to over 18 million within the reported period and youth literacy bounced from 34 percent in 2000 to 52 percent by the year 2011.
The primary school gross enrollment rate has reached 139 percent in 2016 from 26 percent in 1994.
During the reported year, more than 19.8 million students in primary school and 2.4 million students in secondary school were attending education across the country.
Hareg Mamo, Communication Director at Ministry of Education told The Ethiopian Herald that to block various quality gaps in education sector, the Ministry is working its level best to improve education quality thereby feed the overall development endeavor of the country with qualified workforce.
Efforts at various levels are appreciating in supporting the overall economic circumstances through qualified education programs which would foster national growth, Hareg noted.
The designed education packages are facilitating conditions for the implementation of the transformation process in rural schools. The activity is supporting Ethiopia's education transformation journey to improve quality of education at all levels.
Currently, the Ministry has designing education road map to improve the current status of education in Ethiopia. The road map is expected to solve the education sector challenges, Hareg added.
Education access is improved over the years, but currently more emphasis is given to bring quality of education. Documents show that, in Ethiopia, 95 percent of primary school teachers receive training which is higher than the world median of 92 percent. Hnece, the quality of teaching is high. The teacher-to-pupil ratio is 1:64. this implies that children are not able to receive the attention that they need in order to reach their full potential with existence various problem.
Before 1974, the Ethiopian literacy rate was below 10 percent. Since then, the emphasis has been put on increasing this rate and it now stands at more than 50 percent. However, this is very low compared to the rest of the world, but there is a massive improvement for education in Ethiopia.
Education in Ethiopia has improved over the past two decades. However there are still many difficulties that exist within the system. Currently, core subjects such as science and mathematics are being taught in English. It is considered as challenge for students and also teachers as English is neither the teachers' nor the student's first language. Due to this, the concept of the subject might be lost during the medium of communication.
According to Hareg, the current focus of Ethiopian education is to keep children in school and pass to higher education and to reduce the number of school dropouts. This can be done through vocational education, such as Technical Vocational and Educational Training(TVET) programs. This system will ensure that even those who have no access to tertiary education to get some kinds of skill development training.
Lack of good governance and professional leader's limitation in the sector are challenges to ensure quality education. These challenging schools and universities across the country and put the level of quality education at lowest level. Despite the fact that the number of school dropouts has reduced; still many students terminating education before reaching higher education, which limits their opportunity in the future.
Over the past years, private and public higher education institutions are expanded across the country. However, there is always question of quality which couldn't compare with the access. This implies that there are various gaps in ensuring quality education. To address these problems, the government is taking various measures, revising curriculum and evaluating education policies and strategies.
As to Hareg, members of the parent -teacher association, representatives of school supervisors associations and kebele education and trainers are included in management committee to play their role in ensuring quality education. Continuous professional upgrading is systematically arranged to teachers. On job training and granting of scholarships have been putting in place to encourage teachers.
The incumbent has been applying various information communication technology systems to ensure quality education program at all levels.
