/countries/nepal/institutionalizing-ams-in-hospitals-adapting-to-local-contexts-in-nepal_2-4-june_compressed.png?sfvrsn=8e928dba_3 "Institutionalizing AMS in hospitals adapting to local contexts in Nepal_2-4 June_Compressed")
Nepal – The Curative Service Division under the Ministry of Health and Food Safety (MoHFS), with support from WHO Country Office for Nepal, has successfully conducted orientation programmes on the National Antimicrobial Treatment Guideline (NATG) 2023 and the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (AMSP) in all seven provinces of the country. The final orientations were held in Butwal, Lumbini Province (29–30 June 2026), and Pokhara, Gandaki Province (2–3 July 2026), following similar programmes held in the other 5 provinces in 2025. More than 130 hospital administrators, medical superintendents, clinicians, medical officers, nursing officers, pharmacy professionals, laboratory personnel and representatives from Provincial Public Health Laboratories and Health Service Directorates participated in the programmes. The orientations enhanced participants' knowledge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the core components of hospital antimicrobial stewardship programme, infection prevention and control, the NATG and its mobile application, and diagnostic stewardship, and the use of local antibiograms to inform antimicrobial prescription. This initiative lays the foundation for initiating hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs to promote appropriate use of antimicrobials, improve patient safety and clinical outcomes, and reduce health-care costs.