Banjul, 4 December, 2025: On a quiet Wednesday morning at the Central Medical Stores in Kotu, health officials, veterinarians, and international partners gathered with a shared sense of urgency. The occasion was the launch of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week but beneath the speeches and banners lay a message far more serious: the medicines we rely on to survive are losing their power.
Antimicrobial resistance is not new. But according to experts at the event, it has evolved from a distant concern into a towering public-health crisis one that threatens lives, livestock, and economies worldwide, including here in The Gambia.
“We used to say AMR is a looming threat,” reflected Njundu Jatta, Director of Health Services, his voice steady but firm. “But now, it is a reality. It is responsible for millions of deaths globally each year. And it affects almost every part of our lives.”
Jatta, like many health leaders, has watched the rise of resistant bacteria with growing alarm. In farms and hospitals alike, antibiotics are being overused or misused often unintentionally giving bacteria the perfect conditions to adapt and fight back.
“When animals carry resistant bacteria and die, it affects our food safety and eventually our economy,” he added. “This is not just a health problem. It is a development problem.”
“A Crisis Bigger Than HIV and Malaria Combined”
For Momodou Barrow, the World Health Organization’s representative, the statistics tell a sobering story. With an estimated 1.27 million deaths directly caused by AMR each year and nearly five million linked to drug-resistant infections the world is already losing the battle.
“If nothing changes, projections show AMR could cause ten million deaths annually by 2050,” Barrow warned, calling the crisis “one of the biggest threats to global health in the 21st century.”
In Africa, the threat hits even harder. The continent currently records over 1.05 million AMR-related deaths a figure that surpasses deaths from HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. Experts fear that limited diagnostic resources, weak regulatory systems, and easy access to antibiotics without prescription continue to compound the challenge.
When Livestock Practices Fuel a Human Crisis
Across The Gambia’s rural communities, antibiotics are widely used to treat livestock — sometimes correctly, sometimes not. Farmers often depend on these drugs to save their animals from illness, but without proper guidance, the line between treatment and overuse becomes blurred.
“Livestock are a major part of this story,” explained Ousman Ceesay, Deputy Director of Animal Health Services. “Every time antibiotics are misused in animals; resistant bacteria can develop. Those bacteria can enter our food chain. They can reach our markets, our plates, our families.”
Ceesay believes farmers can be part of the solution if given the right tools and training. He urges farmers to invest in vaccination, better hygiene, and alternative prevention methods, rather than relying on antibiotics as a first response.
A Week of Awareness, A Lifetime of Consequences
AMR Awareness Week, officials say, is more than an annual campaign. It is a call to action a reminder that everyone, from doctors and pharmacists to farmers and families, has a role in protecting the medicines that protect us.
The Ministry of Health and its UN partners are pushing for stronger regulation, improved surveillance, and better education on responsible drug use. But they also hope to shift public behavior: stop taking antibiotics without prescriptions, stop using leftover medication, complete treatment courses, and seek proper medical advice.
As the event concluded, the message was clear: antimicrobial resistance is rising faster than most people realize but it can still be slowed.
“This is a fight we cannot afford to lose,” Jatta said. “Because if antibiotics fail, modern medicine fails.”
In hospitals, farms, and households across the country, that warning is beginning to resonate. And for The Gambia like many nations the choices made today could determine the health and survival of future generations.
By Awa Sowe
