Dengue defenses: WHO will step forward and take charge?

Health department and WHO decide to train school teachers to instruct students on how to combat Dengue epidemic.

MULTAN:

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has organised a teacher’s training workshop to raise awareness regarding the dengue virus for students in public schools.

“It is essential to teach children about this fever and about precautionary measures. We are also teaching them how to identify the initial symptoms and guiding them about prevention,” said an instructor at the workshop Malik Yaseen. WHO officials said that the teachers were a great influence in the lives of young students and served as role models. “It is important that messages about health care and other issues come from teachers,” said a WHO worker.

WHO dengue experts addressed a one-day Dengue Fever Orientation Training for School Teachers on Wednesday and said that similar training workshops would be conducted throughout the country. “Students can then spread this information to their parents and families and it will help the community as a whole,” Yaseen said.

The WHO has developed guidelines for school teachers instructing children in English, Urdu and Sindhi and the booklet includes basic messages for students, illustrations that are easy to understand, symptoms of the disease and how it is spread. “There is also a pamphlet on the life cycle of dengue mosquitoes and various methods by which dengue can be controlled,” a teacher said.

Medical officer Dr Rana Kakar said that WHO surveillance and response teams welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of collaboration of teachers with doctors and nurses in spreading public health messages.

WHO officer for vector borne diseases Dr Qutbuddin and Dr Sairah Faruk from the CDA Health Directorate introduced the WHO resource materials for teachers and students titled ‘A Malaria and Dengue Free Me’ published in both English and Urdu.

All the preventive measures were demonstrated with props and visual aids. WHO collaborating centre director Dr Siripen Kalayanarooj, from Thailand, also addressed the gathering and shared her experiences on the effectiveness of teachers to motivate students to combat such diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th,  2011.