Antimicrobial Stewardship: Raising local voices to combat a global menace

Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat. The natural process of a microorganism's (a bug) ability to evade and survive the drugs made to kill them means these germs can continually spread and potentially cause devastating effects in hospital settings and communities. Expertise among prescribers and other healthcare professionals would, therefore, have to be developed, and the education of consumers is imperative to tackle this threat. This will ensure the survival of future generations, particularly in a University hospital like KNUST, which has a reported high usage of antibiotics. The Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Committee of the University Hospital, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was constituted in August 2021 in the spirit of bringing together the expertise of health workers passionate about global health issues in a local context. This committee was novel for the University Hospital and the first collaborative effort between KNUST and Ulster University in Northern Ireland, sponsored by the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET)/ Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS).

During the project, the AMS team conducted three Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS) to assess antibiotics usage among hospital inpatients. It also developed an antibiogram- a chart that shows local resistance and sensitivity patterns of antibiotics frequently used at the hospital and what organisms were cultured from the biological fluids collected, such as urine and blood, despite scarce resources and limited access to data tools for analysis. The team also organized three seminars for hospital employees: one hybrid seminar for sensitization in AMS/AMR and a second on Infection Prevention and Control using local and international facilitators. The last was a dissemination seminar on the committee's activities to the hospital and university communities.

The AMS project at the KNUST hospital signifies collaboration as one of the cornerstones of its success, bringing on board doctors, nurses, pharmacists, microbiologists, and administrative staff as committee members to ensure its success. Health partnerships are essential because as the world has become a "global Village," "a seemingly small act can have a significant ripple effect, affecting billions. The hope is for the continued existence and extension of the AMS committee's activities with an excellent research, development, and project implementation infrastructure.