Nabidda Shamim

Nabidda Shamim is an AMR champion from Uganda ,a graduate nurse from Mbarara University of science and technology, Uganda and because her passion in leadership, she is currently serving as a vice president of Uganda Medical Interns United 2022-2023.

The rampant misuse of antimicrobials by people in my community and the increasing number of resistant microbials despite having no recently discovered antimicrobials for many years now sparked her passion to fight against antimicrobial resistance in all ways with in her capacity.

During the four years that she was on campus, she was academically outstanding and graduated near the top of her class of 2022. In addition, she demonstrated excellent social and leadership skills. She has been an antimicrobial resistance (AMR) champion at the University, being a member of the MUST AMR Club established in May 2021. Not only was she a member of the club in the University but she was also its pioneer Vice President. She has contributed to the formulation of the draft national AMR students’ charter which aims to foster AMR initiatives among studentsthroughout the country. In addition, Shamim is a member of the MUST Antimicrobial Stewardship (MUSTAMS) research group in the Faculty of Medicine which focuses on establishing a viable AMS Centre in MUST. She has partnered with students from other institutions including Makerere and Busitema universities in Uganda to write grant-winning proposals focusing on assessing knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among students, and she has also been part of various campaigns and other initiatives to promote awareness of AMR in the general public.
She has organized webinars, social media campaigns , twitter spaces and out reaches to health workers , patients and caretakers at Mbarara regional referral hospital and university students across Uganda respectively inorder to increase awareness on antimicrobial resistance and teach different ways on how everyone can contribute in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
These activities have been positively impactful in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

Insufficient funds to reach out to more people where few people attend organized webinars on antimicrobial resistance because most don’t have data. Most times people who misuse antimicrobials don’t even own smart phones to attend our webinars so there is need to reach out to them, sometimes this is impossible because of funds . So we have our project in place to reach out to farmers and school going children in fight against misuse of antimicrobials which we are unable to implement because of funds.

She learnt that we need innovative ways of creating employment for people because in matters of antimicrobials misuse , most people report that because of poverty they can’t access hospitals for thorough examinations and investigations by doctors, so they end up getting any drugs from drugshops or pharmacies hence misuse of antimicrobials.

She also learnt that to fight antimicrobial resistance, we should focus more on infection prevention and control , because without infections, nothing will force someone to look for drugs, this can be done through coming up with more vaccines and health education on promotion of good hygiene.

Engaging in AMR activities enhanced her leadership skills and empowered her with skills of project development.

She needs more support in proposal development , search for grants as well as funds to implement her project of reaching out to farmers and school going children in fight against antimicrobial resistance.

She advises students who are yet to engage in AMR to be committed and passionate about the cause since this will push them to do anything with in their capacity to fight antimicrobial resistance.