Portuguese schools will be equiped with the e-Bug educational platform, a
pedagogical tool that integrates the e-Bug Project, wich intends to increase the health literacy of children and young people aged 5 to 18 on the prevention of infection and the good use of antibiotics.
The iniciative was introduced on December 9th and is the result of a partnership between the Directore-General of Health, through the Program for Prevention and Control of Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance, the Directore-General of Education , INFARMED, I.P, and the Antibiotic Center for Primary Care – University of Oslo, Norway.
The project is financed by the EEA Grants Portugal (EEA Grants) and aims to provide all portuguese schools with this platform, developed and managed by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) – formerly Public Health England – and implement its use.
The pilot phase of this project will cover ten School Districts, in several regions of the country and diferent levels of education – from elementary school to high school – estimating its dissemination and expansion troughout the territory until 2023.
Over the next two and a half years, this project will reactivate, rebuild and validate the e-Bug project in Portugal, adapting the contents revised and reformulated by UK Health Secutity Agency in 2020.
Teachers will establish relationships between the curricular contents and health, trough the use of pedacogical materials and resources based on practical activities that facilitate the assimilation of concepts and knowledge about the good use of antibiotics and the prevention of infections, trough vaccination, hand hygene or the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
At the event, the partnership agreement for the PT/EEA Grants-Bug Project was signed among the three national instituitions, affirming, clearly, the commitment to the collaborative strategy, as a guarantee that by the end of 2023 all schools in Portugal will have the e-Bug tool available in its “Pedagogical Resources Bank” and the Project implemented in its activities.