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Dr Hanson Nortey, the Deputy Programmes Director of the Tuberculosis Control programme, has warned about the abuse of antibiotics, which he said would create a security and economic crisis if not checked nationally and globally.
According to him antibiotics abuse has become a worldwide problem because it is used massively in medicine to treat diseases in human beings as well as animals.
Dr Nortey said the unbridled use of antibiotics would create a security difficulty where human beings and animals had diseases that could not be cured.
He said the world had become sophisticated because of biological warfare, which involved the intentional manufacture of bacteria which were inflicted on so called enemies, and so if there were no antibiotics to treat the victims there would be major humanitarian crisis and people would die.
He said the escalation of antibiotic abuse led to resistance and affected productivity.
“Ebola is an example of such an instance where millions were wiped off the GDP in the economy of Liberia, guinea, Sierra Leone, so not only does it affect the human being but it also affects the economy,” he explained.
He adds, if newer antibiotics are needed to treat newer organisms it costs a lot of money for research to produce these antibiotics.
“If everybody is getting sick there will be no money generated causing a crush in the economy, this is why it is imperative to protect the ones available,” he added.
He called for education to prevent antibiotic resistance and the need to enforce the laws governing the drugs.
