🇳🇬 English, 6 October 2026, health-tech
Africa's Antimicrobial Resistance Crisis Lacks Laboratory Data
African countries struggle to track antimicrobial resistance due to a lack of laboratory data, hindering AI diagnostics and prescribing tools.
The World Health Organisation estimates that one in five laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections in its African Region in 2023 was resistant to antibiotics. This estimate cannot capture infections that are never tested. The visibility gap extends beyond Africa, with 48% of countries not reporting resistance data to the WHO’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) in 2023.
Clinicians need diagnostic evidence to prescribe well, but limited laboratory capacity is a barrier to detecting and tracking resistant pathogens. An Africa CDC-led study found that only 1.3% of roughly 50,000 laboratories in participating networks performed bacteriology testing.
Building systems that make laboratory data usable, rather than relying on AI layered on top, may be the bigger health-tech opportunity in addressing Africa’s antimicrobial resistance crisis.