Implementation of Antimicrobial Stewardship in a District Hospital in the Ashanti Region of Ghana Using a Health Partnership Model

Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) uses a health partnership model to establish AMS in Commonwealth countries. The University Hospital of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partnership with Ulster University, in Northern Ireland undertook an AMS project from November 2021 to May 2022. We report on the implementation and its effect on antibiotic use and infections management at the University Hospital. The Global-Point Prevalence Survey (PPS) protocol was used to assess antibiotics use at the hospital at the beginning, midpoint and end of the project. Feedback on each PPS was given to staff to inform behaviour change and improve antibiotic prescribing. Antibiotic use reduced from 65% at baseline to 59.7% at the end of the project. The rate of health-associated infections also reduced from 17.5% at baseline to 6.5%. In addition, the use of antibiotics belonging to the WHO Access group at the hospital was 40% initially but increased to 50% at the project endpoint. Culture and antibiotic susceptibility requests increased from the beginning of the project from 111 total requests to 330 requests over 7 months. The AMS model implemented improved antibiotic use as well as requests for culture and susceptibility test which must be sustained

Sustainable partnerships for communication disability rehabilitation in Majority World countries. A message from the inside

Rehabilitation services for people with communication disabilities (PWCD) in many majority-world countries are extremely limited, with speech-language pathology little known. Collaborations between clinicians and services in majority- and minority-world countries provide important contributions to developing rehabilitation services in the majority world for PWCD. The effectiveness of such partnerships may be influenced by a number of elements within the relationship. This paper presents insights from a group of majority-world speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Ghana on establishing and maintaining links between majority- and minority-world services and clinicians. The framework of three sustainability dimensions (service environment, socio-cultural-political environment, and economic environment) is used to consider how SLP relationships across majority–minority worlds can be meaningful and lasting. Readers are encouraged to adopt the perspective of SLPs from within the country to consider the impact and sustainability of majority–minority world partnerships

Dyke‐Davidoff‐Masson syndrome—A rare cause of recurrent seizures in adulthood

Key Clinical Message It is important to consider DDMS as a differential diagnosis in any patient with early childhood onset of epilepsy. Early diagnosis and optimal management are key to reducing the disabling effect of DDMS