At Korle Bu Teaching Hospital—Ghana’s premier national referral and teaching hospital in Accra—clinicians are increasingly detecting highly resistant bacterial strains carrying some of the most concerning antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes documented globally. These organisms are capable of surviving last-resort antibiotics and spreading within hospital environments, posing a serious threat to patient safety.
Yet Ghana’s ability to detect these threats remains limited due to inadequate diagnostic tools, according to Professor Nicholas T.K.D. Dayie, a consultant Bacteriologist at the University of Ghana Medical School, who made the remarks during his inaugural lecture at the Great Hall last Thursday.
According to Prof. Dayie, the growing threat of drug-resistant infections is being compounded by unreliable surveillance systems that distort critical health data.
“A patient arrives with what should be a treatable bacterial infection. Laboratory tests identify the bacteria, and the results suggest that a particular antibiotic should work. Doctors prescribe the medicine with confidence. But days later, the patient is still sick, and sometimes their condition worsens.”
“The drug did not fail because doctors made the wrong decision,” he said. “In some cases, the problem begins much earlier—inside the laboratory itself.”
He warned that the inconsistencies in laboratory data often stem from three major causes: real biological changes in microbes, weak laboratory systems, and resistance mechanisms that may not be detected under standard testing conditions. He added that these distortions can also result from poor-quality reagents, weak laboratory practices, and inadequate quality assurance systems.
Prof. Dayie revealed that Ghana’s surveillance capacity remains limited. Although the country has approximately 4,841 laboratories, only about 93 are capable of conducting bacteriology testing. This means that national resistance data is being generated from only a small fraction of these facilities.
That concern reflects broader trends across Africa.
A Fleming Fund-supported report found that just over 1 percent of 50,000 medical laboratories across participating African countries were able to conduct bacteriology testing for AMR.
He outlined five priorities for addressing the situation: accurate detection, stronger validation systems, cross-sector collaboration, better governance, and sustainable financing.
Ghana has already introduced national policies and surveillance frameworks with support from organisations such as the Fleming Fund, which currently assists more than 30 countries globally in strengthening AMR surveillance.
According to Ghana’s national AMR surveillance reports, the country has thousands of medical laboratories, but only a small proportion have the capacity to conduct advanced bacteriology testing.
This means that national resistance data may be telling only part of the story.
“We may be making national decisions based on incomplete information,” Dayie said.
The consequences extend beyond hospitals.
The World Bank has warned that by 2050, antimicrobial resistance could push up to 24 million people into extreme poverty if countries fail to act.
To address the problem, Prof. Dayie called for stronger national investment in diagnostics, improved quality control systems, and a broader “One Health” approach that links human, animal, and environmental health systems.
A major study published in The Lancet found that drug-resistant bacterial infections directly caused an estimated 1.27 million deaths globally in 2019 and contributed to nearly 4.95 million deaths, making AMR one of the world’s leading public health threats.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly warned that antibiotic resistance threatens decades of medical progress, making routine surgeries, childbirth, and common infections increasingly risky.
In Ghana, the threat is becoming harder to ignore. Doctors are seeing infections that persist longer, patients requiring stronger medications, and hospitals battling bacteria resistant to last-line antibiotics.
However, Dayie argues that the problem extends beyond evolving microbes.
“We often focus on resistant bacteria as the enemy,” he said. “But weak laboratory systems can generate false information that affects treatment decisions.”
These “falsehoods,” he explained, are not deliberate errors. They occur when outdated laboratory equipment, inconsistent testing procedures, poor-quality reagents, or weak quality control systems produce misleading results.
This creates a dangerous illusion.
Meanwhile, the Fleming Fund—a UK aid programme that supports low- and middle-income countries—is helping Ghana strengthen surveillance systems, improve laboratory infrastructure, and generate more reliable AMR data.
For frontline healthcare workers, better data could mean the difference between life and death.
“When laboratory reports are inaccurate, treatment becomes guesswork,” said Prof. Dayie. “And when treatment becomes guesswork, patients suffer.”
He added that the broader lesson applies across health systems: long-standing assumptions should always be tested against evidence.
Experts say the solution is clear but expensive: stronger laboratories, better-trained personnel, consistent testing standards, and sustained investment in surveillance systems.
In the global fight against superbugs, the danger lies not only in the bacteria we can see but also in the failures hidden within the systems designed to stop them.
“When microbes speak, they do so truthfully. The task before us is to ensure that our systems hear them clearly, interpret them correctly, and respond with wisdom,” Prof. Dayie said.
Reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhXf9zEZvjI