Monrovia, Liberia: To strengthen Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) surveillance and stewardship in Liberia, WHO on 23 April 2021 donated information communication and technology (ICT) equipment and assorted accessories to the Ministry of Health.

The ICT equipment and accessories donated include eight laptop computers, seven printers, seven mobile phones and assorted boxes of stationeries and printers’ cartridges, to support national antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance and stewardship in seven major public referral hospitals in Liberia.

Making the donations at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Peter Clement, WHO Country Representative for Liberia, applauded the Ministry of Health leadership and partners for their commitment to deliver quality health services including the AMR Program and One Health platform.

“The assorted IT equipment donated today for the seven public referral hospitals and the AMR Focal Points would strengthen the health sector in mitigating the threats posed by AMR through the implementation of hospital-based antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) program and AMR surveillance to optimize the use of antimicrobials and prevent further spread of drug resistant infections/pathogens,” Dr. Clement said.

Receiving the items, Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, Hon. Minister of Health, Republic of Liberia, thanked WHO and the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) for the donations. She said the items will serve as a motivation for our healthcare facilities wherein it will alleviate some of the logistics and operational problems in the healthcare delivery of Liberia.

“The provision of the assorted equipment will go a long way in ensuring that the laboratory technicians and healthcare quality management have some basic essential equipment to facilitate their day-to day work,” Dr. Jallah said.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of a microorganism like bacteria, viruses, fungi and some parasites to stop an antimicrobial such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials from working against it.

Funding for the procurement of these equipment was made available by the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) through the WHO.