Dr Hauwa Mohammed Sani

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most devastating global health challenge since World War 2, with its ripple effect permeating every sector of society. One effect is its impact on antibiotic resistance; another is the aggravation of misinformation, disinformation and mal-information about vaccines in Northern Nigeria.

The quest to find a lasting treatment for the pandemic and the uncertainties surrounding the clinical outcome necessitates using antibiotics in the treatment package. However, this tends to speed up another pandemic – antibiotic abuse and resistance. Antibiotic resistance develops when bacteria can no longer be managed by antibiotics that were once effective.

Public awareness campaign strategies are needed to arrest the menace. The pandemic has affected the supply of antibiotics in hospitals and communities. Across the globe, an increased use of antibiotics during the pandemic has been reported. A study from Asia shows that an increase of up to 70% of patients received antibiotics despite only 10% having had bacterial infections. In sub-Saharan Africa – where the excessive use of antibiotics has become the norm – the emergence of the COVID-19 virus aggravated the situation.

The abuse of antibiotic substances during the pandemic demonstrated the considerable influence of pseudoscience interventions among average Nigerians. This resulted in a proliferation of crude production, consumption and recommendation of unverified antibiotic substances, which may have detrimental long-term health implications on individual consumers and public health.

The project will investigate the causal impact of misinformation and pseudoscience on the misuse of antibiotics in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also examine conspiracy theories surrounding the use of COVID-19 vaccines within Northern Nigerian contexts to find out how these ideas are disseminated, and will develop succinct strategies and interventions that could be used to mitigate and curb these practices. The research will be conducted in 19 of the 36 states that make up the Nigerian Federation, and will rely on data from online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube as well as interactions between members of online communities.

Dr Hauwa Mohammed Sani’s research aims to change the behavioural patterns of Northern Nigerians by debunking COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation on antibiotics and pseudoscience.

The researchers will develop methods to mitigate and control the excessive consumption of antibiotic substances, reduce resistance and predict the mortality rate – given that it is forecasted that antibiotic resistance will kill more than 10 million people globally by 2050 if the issue is not addressed. Publications that result from the project are expected to provide working tools for scientists, public health practitioners, psychologists, media practitioners and policymakers in Africa and beyond.