Foundation Honours late Adadevoh at 2022 World Antimicrobial Awareness Week Celebration

In commemoration of the 2022 World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW), a foundation named after Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh (DRASA) is educating the public about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with an inter-school debate and talent hunt show at Yaba, Lagos.

The WAAW 2022 celebration themed ‘Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Together’ is a call for policymakers to encourage health workers and the general public to adopt best practices to prevent the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections to address AMR under the One Health approach.

The foundation has in place a health and hygiene club known as DRASA in 30 schools in Lagos and Osun states, with about 900 members called DRASA Ambassadors.

DRASA representative said the students have been educated on the spread of germs as well as the responsible use of antimicrobial drugs and how to prevent antimicrobial resistance, personal hygiene, environmental sanitation, menstrual hygiene, and other health-related education.

The team lead of Lagos Praise Adeyemo describes the work of DRASA as “combating the silent pandemic which is antimicrobial resistance.” She asserted the organisations commitment to championing activities aimed at sensitisation of antimicrobial resistance.

“One of the things we do at DRASA health trust is to go to these schools to establish health and hygiene clubs through our antimicrobial resistance school programme Since we are already involved in some work on antimicrobial resistance our drive for this year was to continue in that spirit and create more awareness.”

She remarked that asides the competition other activities like twitter space took place where spoke to the public about antimicrobial resistance.

In his opening remark the senior program manager Chukwunonso Offodile said that the event honours the work of the late Doctor Stella in limiting the spread of Ebola in Nigeria, where DRASA acts as a tool to “enlighten and solve AMR in Nigeria.”

Adams Bamidele from Education District Six said of the event that she is “excited” because of the “commitment of DRASA health trust.” She elaborated that AMR is not a one-man fight “we all have a role to play.” Bamidele called on the government to be more involved as DRASA supports the fight against AMR.

In the debate competition, six schools qualified for the final stage. They are New Era Girls Senior Secondary School, Obele Community Senior Secondary, Ansar Ud Deen Senior High, State Senior High, Community Senior High Wasimi and Okota Senior High. They debated the topic “One Health as a Solution for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR); A Reality or a Facade?”

State Senior High School emerged the winner of the week-long debate.

The chief judge Mrs Feyi Akinhanmi described the time spent as “a very rewarding one”. She explained the criteria used in judging, noting that their appearance, expression, persuasiveness, and presentation of their points were considered.

The organisers judged the talent show session based on appearance, comportment, relevance of performance to AMR and keeping to time. For this, Omole Grammar School took the first position for their group performance, again, the second place for their spoken word performance while the host school Lagos City College took third place.