Submission ID 130264
| Issue/Objective | Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds significant potential to strengthen antimicrobial resistance (AMR) control through improved surveillance, diagnostics, and clinical decision support. While digital health tools increasingly feature in national strategies, the extent to which AI is explicitly integrated into African National AMR Action Plans (NAPs) remains unclear. This study examines how selected African countries articulate AI use within their NAPs and identifies gaps and opportunities for advancing data-driven AMR responses in low-resource settings. |
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| Methodology/Approach | A rapid content analysis was conducted on National AMR Action Plans from 10 African countries published from 2017 onward, purposively selected for regional diversity and recent policy updates. Systematic keyword searches identified references to "artificial intelligence," "machine learning," "clinical decision support systems," and related digital health and data analytics terms. Extracted content was mapped against the WHO's five strategic objectives for AMR, with additional attention to One Health data integration. Mentions were categorized as explicit AI use, implicit digital opportunities, or absent, followed by descriptive synthesis. |
| Results | Explicit AI integration across African NAPs was limited. Only Uganda explicitly referenced machine learning and data mining for diagnostics and surveillance. Digital health tools were most commonly cited for surveillance systems (10/10 countries), followed by antimicrobial stewardship (4/10), mainly through electronic prescribing or decision support tools. Public awareness activities referenced electronic media in 4/10 NAPs. Major gaps were observed in One Health data interoperability, although Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe proposed centralized data repositories. No NAP explicitly addressed AI-driven infection prevention or advanced stewardship optimization, highlighting missed opportunities for predictive AMR interventions. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | African NAPs reflect growing interest in digital health but limited articulation of AI-specific strategies. Updating NAPs to include explicit AI applications-particularly for surveillance analytics, clinical decision support, and predictive modeling-could strengthen AMR responses. Regional technical guidance and capacity building led by WHO AFRO and the African Union are needed to translate AI potential into actionable AMR policy and practice. |
| Presenters and Affiliations | Abdulmumin Ibrahim Slum And Rural Health Initiative Yusuf Olalekan Babatunde Alliance against AMR |
