The Laboratory and Medical Sciences Department and the Communicable Diseases Surveillance Center (CDSC) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Islamic University of Gaza held a symposium on the implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip in conjunction with the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW), which runs from November 18–24 of each year.
The symposium was held in the presence of: Dr. Mazen Al-Zaharna, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences; Prof. Dr. Abdelraouf Elmanama, Supervisor and Coordinator of the WAAW Campaign; Dr. Bassam Zaqout, Representative of the Palestinian Medical Relief; Dr. Khaled Abu Samaan, Representative of WHO in Gaza; and a group of specialists and university students.
Opening session
In the opening session, Prof. Dr. Elmanama welcomed the attendees and lauded the efforts made to organize the symposium, stressing the importance of the campaign’s goal, which is to deliver a message to decision-makers in the medical field “that we are able to implement antimicrobial stewardship systems in hospitals.” Prof. Dr. drew attention to the importance of antibiotics in saving people’s lives.
First session
The first session reviewed four scientific papers and started with Prof. Abdelraouf Elmanama, who demonstrated the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship elements in Gaza Strip hospitals and discussed the entity of microbes, their formation methods, and how to combat them.
The session tackled other topics about different awareness methods that should be followed to deliver different messages about antibiotics, besides a lecture on how to read and apply microbiological media accurately.
This is in addition to a series of lectures delivered by MSF related to the subject matter, where a pioneering experience in microbiology from MSF in Belgium was presented.
Second session
The second session consisted of a series of workshops, including: the role of antimicrobial stewardship programs in improving behaviors related to prescribing and dispensing, indicators for the use of antimicrobial, the specified daily dose, principles for prescribing antibiotics, behavioral changes needed to improve antimicrobial prescribing, and measures to be taken to encourage the implementation of stewardship programs on antimicrobial in Gaza Strip hospitals
