The Antimicrobial Guide for Primary Health Care in Ceará has been officially launched, marking an important step in scaling up evidence-informed antimicrobial stewardship approaches in Brazil. The adoption builds on the successful implementation of a CAMO-Net-developed antimicrobial guide in São Caetano do Sul, where it formed a core part of a wider intervention to optimise antibiotic use in primary care.
The Ceará Guide was formally launched on 12 December 2025 during the 15th Ordinary Meeting of the Ceará Bipartite Interagency Commission (CIB/CE), held at the Fortaleza School of Public Health (ESPFOR). The launch was included in the meeting’s official agenda and led by Lauro Vieira Perdigão Neto, Executive Secretary for Health Care and Regional Development of the State of Ceará, alongside Maura Salaroli de Oliveira, representing CAMO-Net.
The CIB is the principal forum for intergovernmental agreement within Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) at state level. It brings together the Ceará State Health Secretariat (SESA), the Council of Municipal Health Secretaries of Ceará (COSEMS), and health secretaries from all 184 municipalities across the state. Presenting the Guide in this setting represents a strategic move to ensure technical alignment, institutional legitimacy and wide dissemination of the recommendations across Ceará.
From local pilot to state-level policy
The Ceará adoption draws directly on lessons learned from São Caetano do Sul, where CAMO-Net supported the development and launch of an antimicrobial guide tailored for primary care professionals. Introduced through a high-profile local event involving municipal leaders, academic partners and frontline health workers, the São Caetano guide was designed to support better prescribing practices across common primary care infections, while promoting shared responsibility for antimicrobial stewardship among multidisciplinary teams.
That pilot demonstrated the value of locally adapted, co-produced guidance embedded within broader education and engagement activities. The Ceará Guide builds on this foundation, adapting content to the state context, validating recommendations with local experts, and integrating the guidance with existing state policies on pharmaceutical care and health surveillance.
Strengthening Primary Health Care’s role in antimicrobial stewardship
By embedding antimicrobial guidance within Primary Health Care, the initiative recognises the sector’s central role in population health and in addressing antimicrobial resistance. With the majority of antibiotics prescribed at this level of care, optimising decision-making in primary care is critical to improving outcomes for patients, health systems and the environment.
For CAMO-Net, the Ceará experience illustrates how partnerships between international research networks, academic institutions and public health managers can move from local innovation to structured, sustainable public policy. It demonstrates the potential for tools developed through collaborative, context-sensitive approaches to achieve impact at scale, while remaining aligned with global priorities for optimising antimicrobial use.
Further communications activity is now underway, with CAMO-Net working alongside the Ceará State Health Secretariat to align press materials and supporting content linked to the launch.
