Addressing gaps in AMR awareness in the public: an evidence-based policy brief to guide school curriculum review in Uganda

J P Waswa; Reuben Kiggundu; Mohan P Joshi; Joseph Mpagi; Hassan Kasujja; Marion Murungi; Henry Kajumbula; Esther Were; Dan Schwarz; Kamada Lwere; Niranjan Konduri

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1287523

Addressing gaps in AMR awareness in the public: an evidence-based policy brief to guide school curriculum review in Uganda

Front Public Health. 2023 Nov 23:11:1287523. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1287523. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ USAID Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services Program, Management Sciences for Health, Kampala, Uganda.
² USAID Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services Program, Management Sciences for Health, Arlington, VA, United States.
³ Faculty of Health Sciences, Busitema University, Mbale, Uganda.
⁴ Department of Microbiology, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
⁵ Global Health Systems Innovation, Management Sciences for Health, Medford, MA, United States.
⁶ Faculty of Health Sciences, Soroti University, Soroti, Uganda.
⁷ Faculty of Health Sciences, Islamic University in Uganda, Mbale, Uganda.

Abstract

The government of Uganda, through its Ministry of Health, previously adopted curriculum review as a mechanism to respond to public health threats such as HIV/AIDS and include content in primary and secondary schools. This approach contributes to raising public awareness, a key strategy recommended by the World Health Organization to support the global response to the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This policy brief, developed for policymakers related to school curricula, aims to advocate for and support integration of AMR content in Uganda's primary and secondary level school curricula. The policy brief supports efforts by the multisectoral National AMR Subcommittee to create awareness on this issue as part of its role in facilitating the operationalization of Uganda's National Action Plan on AMR.

Keywords: AMR; antimicrobial resistance; curriculum review; policy brief; public awareness; school education.

MeSH terms

Curriculum*
Policy*
Schools
Uganda
World Health Organization

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) contract no. 7200AA18C00074.