UNILAG VC Urges Special Attention to Slums in Nigeria's Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance
In a recent lecture at the University of Ibadan, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), stressed the urgent need for targeted measures to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Nigeria.
Faith Orji 
In a recent address at the University of Ibadan, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), emphasized the critical need for targeted measures in Nigeria's battle against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), referring to slums as a key factor amplifying the threat.
During the 2023 Horatio Oritsejolomi Thomas Distinguished Lecture titled 'Cities, People, and Bugs: Perspectives on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in Nigeria,' Professor Ogunsola highlighted slums as a permanent feature of African cities that requires special attention. She characterized AMR as a silent, deadly, and relentless pandemic jeopardizing the progress made in controlling infectious diseases since the era of penicillin.
The UNILAG vice chancellor asserted that factors accelerating microbial resistance, including diseases caused by antimicrobial resistance germs, are prevalent and increasing in slum areas. She argued that addressing slum health issues and upgrading these settlements is crucial to effectively combat AMR.
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Quoting Professor Ogunsola, "The increasing size and number of slums in many low- and medium-income countries, including Nigeria, will not make antimicrobial resistance go away unless slums are upgraded, and special attention paid to their health issues."
The impact of AMR, according to the Vice Chancellor, is yet to be fully quantified. Citing the World Health Organization (WHO), she stated that an estimated 10 million people, including 4.1 million in sub-Saharan Africa, are expected to succumb to antimicrobial-resistant organisms by 2050.
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Highlighting the economic consequences, Professor Ogunsola warned that African countries might lose up to five percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050 if the AMR pandemic is not curtailed. She emphasized that antibiotics are fundamental to modern medicine, and their loss of effectiveness would be catastrophic.
Explaining antimicrobial resistance, she said it occurs when germs that previously responded to antimicrobials no longer do so at the normal doses required. Rapid population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, and the proliferation of slum settlements create an environment conducive to the rapid transmission of germs. Overcrowding, inadequate access to clean water, poor sanitation services, and waste mismanagement amplify infection rates in slums.
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Professor Ogunsola advocated for revisiting pit latrines in slums, highlighting their potential contribution to water source contamination. She stressed the need for a comprehensive approach addressing the social determinants of health and emphasized the importance of slum upgrades over destruction.
"Slum interventions should move away from destroying slums to upgrading slums, as destruction just creates the squeezed balloon effects, and they set up elsewhere. Antimicrobial resistance will not go away if slums do not," Professor Ogunsola concluded. "If we do not go back to the basics and ensure we address the social determinants of health, the high infection rates in slums will continue to fuel the pandemic." She said.
