African innovators tackle antimicrobial resistance

Monday, February 10, 2020

Nairobi, Kenya & Cape Town, South Africa | Eleven bold African innovators will receive close to $1 M in funding to develop products and technologies to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Africa.

Antibiotics play a critical role in reducing the burden of communicable diseases globally. However, AMR threatens the treatment of diseases as it renders these drugs ineffective and has contributed to 700,000 deaths globally each year. Although resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics has been witnessed in Africa, the full scope of the burden is not yet understood as 40% of African countries do not have enough data on AMR (World Health Organization)

The 11, who were selected through a competitive process involving 100 applicants from 20 countries, will each receive between $100,000 and $250,000 to research the scope of AMR in Africa and develop relevant technologies and products to address the AMR challenge. These scientists will, for example, study the role of livestock in spreading AMR to humans, and the association between antibiotic prescription data from pharmacies and antibiotic resistance patterns observed in the communities.

The funding is provided by the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Six innovators – one Ghanaian, two Kenyans, one Nigerian and two Ugandans – will be funded through the AAS’ Grand Challenges Africa Innovation Seed Grants, which were created to catalyse scientific breakthroughs and find local solutions to solve Africa’s pressing challenges.

The Grand Challenges South Africa will fund the remaining five South African innovators.

“These innovations represent the Academy’s vision of transformed lives through science by offering unique scientific approaches to tackle AMR and relevant product offerings that are disruptive and likely to have a lasting impact on the health of African people,” said Grand Challenges Africa Programme Manager Dr Moses Alobo.

“It is well known that disease and bacteria respect no borders. As such, the SAMRC is pleased to be collaborating with the AAS to support and harness the talents of African scientists to generate relevant knowledge and innovative solutions to address AMR on the continent,” said Grand Challenges South Africa Programme Manager, Zoleka Ngcete.  

Additional quotes

Kwabena O Duedu, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana said:  “We welcome this Grand Challenges Africa funding, which will help us to increase the understanding of how AMR is spread, its sources between humans and animals and how the plasmids, tiny pieces of DNA that shuttle between various forms of bacteria, evolve and contribute to its spread. Hopefully, we can generate evidence for Ghana and Africa to stop resistance.”

Gerald Mboowa, Bioinformatics & Genomics Research Fellow, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University (MakCHS), Uganda said: The Grand Challenges Africa funding will help us to identify indicators that can tell us when a drug is not effectively treating a specific disease in person or community due to resistance. Ultimately, we want to save lives and ensure that people do not continue to die without realising that they have become resistance to a certain drug and therefore require alternative interventions.”Read more ....