Antibiotic resistance: When a saviour turns a killer

In rural and urban markets of Nigeria, antibiotics are sold openly and without any prescription by hundreds of vendors such as Sadiq Abdullahi in Kpana Market in Utako district of Abuja. Abdullahi sells antibiotics like amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, metronidazole, penicillin and clindamycin. It’s an open, hot and filthy outlet. People crowd his shop as he sells these antibiotics at prices much lower than those of the registered pharmacy. 

Vendors like Sadiq Abdullahi do not ask customers for prescriptions and sell any amount of antibiotics, disregarding treatment guidelines. Abdullahi sources his drugs from sellers based on the outskirts of Abuja. But these medicines do not even have the mandatory codes for verification of the country’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration.