Prof. Yakubu Ngwai, Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, has stressed the need for patients to take note of antibiotic resistance.
Ngwai said this in his lecture entitled: “Antibiotic Resistance” at the 13th Inaugural Lecture of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, on Wednesday .
He said antibiotic resistance was a global problem with a rising trend to dangerous high levels.
He added that “new resistance mechanisms emerge and spread globally everyday, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases.
“Antibiotic resistance is a public health problem with potential to affect an entire community.
“This is because antibiotic resistance in one bacterium or location can be transferred to another bacterium rapidly and unpredictably.
“When it is used in human or animals, approximately 80 to 90 per cent of the ingested antibiotics are not broken down, but pass through the body and enters the environment as waste.”
Prof. Mohammed Mainoma, the Vice Chancellor of the university, said that the topic of the lecture was timely because those who studied the efficacy of drugs were not only providing service to humanity but also saving lives.
He added that “there is nothing as painful as experiencing what ought to work and is not working; one would just be left confused and worried.”