Research

e-Bug

e-Bug was a DGSANCO funded European wide education resource that aimed to improve young people's understanding of the importance of hygiene and proper antibiotic use.There were separate packs for primary and secondary schools which were obtainable at no cost to schools in each partner country.

As part of e-Bug we developed a website that offered every part of the packs in Microsoft Word format as well as extending the resource by including additional materials including animations, clip art and a suite of educational games to emphasise the learning outcomes of each lesson of the packs. After evaluating the resource for a full year in schools, the necessary changes were made before the final resource was launched for all associate partner countries at the end of 2009.

Aims & Objectives

Antibiotic resistance is one of the key problems facing communities and hospitals in Europe. This could be tackled by prudent antibiotic use through improved professional and public education. There are extensive campaigns aimed at health professionals but there is little aimed at the general adult public and almost nothing aimed at school aged children. By targeting e-Bug at school aged youths, we aim to achieve two goals:   

Target Audience

There were two versions of the resource that were created. By aligning the content of lessons closely to school curricula, we hoped to create a resource that is suitable and attractive to each partner country:   

Staff

There were 18 European countries involved in e-Bug. The development team was based in the United Kingdom and involved staff from the Health Protection Agency (HPA), based in Gloucester and the City eHealth Research Centre (CeRC) at City University, London. CeRC staff contributing to the project were: