Centre urges FG to regulate use of antibiotics

The Centre for Molecular Biosciences and Biotechnology (CMBB) of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia, has urged the Federal Ministry of Health to regulate the use of antibiotics in the country.

The Director of CMBB, Prof. Ifeoma Ijeh, made the call on Monday during the opening ceremony of a four-day workshop organised by the centre in Umudike.

Ijeh, who said that there is excessive use and misuse of antibiotics, added that the exposure could lead to gradual development of resistance.

According to her, excessive use or misuse of antibiotics is the reason why some people will continue to treat a particular disease but it refuses to go.

She said, “you notice these days that most standard hospitals will send you for culture and sensitivity test to identify the antibiotics which these organisms can respond to before they start treating you.

“But the average person just wakes up, goes to a shop and buys drugs off the counter; and when the person is sick and is being treated, the sickness will not just go because he/she had abused such antibiotic and had become resistant”.

According to her, one cannot just walk into a shop and buy a drug without prescription in many developed
countries of the world.

Ijeh, a nutritional and toxicological biochemist, said that the workshop was aimed at bringing in new simpler
and faster tools in identifying resistant trends and sensitive antibiotics.

The director said that the workshop would also expose participants to international experts in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance, who would serve as key resource persons.

She explained that the participants would at the end of the workshop, acquire skills required for DNA extraction from microbial sources, Gel preparation, Gene expression and antimicrobial resistance, among others.

She added that the workshop, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, UK, was sponsored by the
African Research Excellence Fund of the Medical Research Council, UK.

She said that participants were drawn from staff of colleges that deal with biological science research in the university and sister institutions in the South East.

Our correspondent reports that the theme of the workshop is “Molecular and Phenotypic Characterisation of Antibiotic Resistance Using Biofilm Markers”.