Last week the U.S. Government’s Naval Medical Research Unit- No. 3 (NAMRU-3) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) joined the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population and the Supreme Council of Universities to scale up programmes to monitor the level of antibiotic-resistant infections in Egyptian hospitals nationwide.
Bacterial infections acquired in hospitalised patients, and subsequent antibiotic resistance lead to disease complications, longer hospital stays, and increased costs of healthcare services. To combat the spread of hospital-acquired infections, the US and Egyptian governments implemented a pilot project that monitors antibiotic-resistant infections in 42 ministry, university, and private sector hospitals and developed national infection control guidelines. Phase two of these projects will expand the program to all intensive care units nationwide and provide hospitals with access to national electronic reporting of hospital infection data to optimise the use of antibiotics and build the reporting capacity of healthcare providers. These programms should lead to higher quality of health services in Egypt.
NAMRU-3, since its establishment at the invitation of the Government of Egypt in 1946, has partnered with the Health Ministry on infectious disease research. As a state-of-the art medical research laboratory, NAMRU-3 also coordinates with international partners, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and USAID, to provide scientific excellence in research, training, and surveillance.
Watani International
2 December 2014