Key Points

• Antibiotic abuse is accelerating antimicrobial resistance.

• Self medication remains a key driver of antibiotic abuse.

• Public education can reduce antibiotic abuse risks.

A top Nigerian doctor has raised new concerns about the widespread misuse of antibiotics, saying that unchecked habits of self-medication are making antimicrobial resistance worse and making healthcare outcomes worse.

Dr. Grace Senbanjo, an endocrinologist and doctor at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, said that the abuse of antibiotics has reached very high levels all over the country. In an interview in Lagos, she said that the trend was a growing public health threat that could undo years of progress in treating infectious diseases.

Senbanjo said that people often take antibiotics without a prescription, a proper diagnosis, or lab tests. She says that a lot of Nigerians treat their illnesses by guessing, getting advice from people who aren’t doctors, or using old medicines, which makes them resistant and makes treatment fail.

Abusing antibiotics makes treatment less effective

Senbanjo said that when people abuse antibiotics, bacteria and other microorganisms can change, which makes standard treatments useless. She said that doctors are seeing more and more patients whose infections don’t respond to first-line antibiotics anymore. This means longer hospital stays and higher medical costs.

She said that antimicrobial resistance makes it more likely for serious problems and death to happen, especially in groups that are more likely to be affected, like children and the elderly. When resistance builds up, it becomes harder to control infections, and they can spread more easily in communities.

Self-medication leads to antibiotic abuse all over the country

In Nigeria, one of the main reasons people abuse antibiotics is that they can get them without a prescription. Senbanjo said that people often use drugs meant for certain bacterial infections to treat viral illnesses like colds, flu, and sore throats, where antibiotics don’t help.

She also talked about how people often stop taking antibiotics when their symptoms get better. She said that not finishing treatment teaches bacteria how to survive future exposure, making the same drug less effective when it is really needed.

Education and testing are still very important ways to protect yourself

Senbanjo said that the right medical exam and lab tests should be used to decide when to give antibiotics. She said that culture tests help find the exact organism that is causing an infection and the best way to treat it.

She called for better public education through television, radio, and digital platforms, not just in hospitals and clinics. She also said that regulatory agencies need to enforce the rules that are already in place for drug sales to stop people from abusing antibiotics and keep the public healthy.

If antimicrobial resistance isn’t stopped, it could make common infections much more dangerous and expensive to treat, putting even more stress on families and the healthcare system.