Teachers’ role is vital in creating awareness among the school-going children about the symptoms, control and prevention of dengue fever. They are a great influence on the students and role models for them; hence they can spread the message on dengue prevention and control most effectively and reach a large number of households. These were the views shared by the experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) while addressing a one day seminar ‘Dengue Fever Orientation Training for School Teachers’ at the Islamabad Model school on Wednesday. The WHO in collaboration with the CDA’s Health Services Department organised the training.
WHO Medical Officer Communicable disease Surveillance and Response WHO Dr Rana Kakar welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of collaboration of teachers with doctors and nurses in spreading public health messages. “The resource material for teachers is the first WHO-sponsored effort to combine forces between the sectors to combat dengue.” He said. Dr Hassan Urooj, the CDA director health service, provided details of the current situation of dengue in Islamabad and the coordination for an effective response. Dr Qutbuddin, the WHO officer for vector borne diseases, and Dr Sairah Faruk from CDA introduced the WHO resource materials ‘Malaria and Dengue – Free Me’, which has been published in both English and Urdu. All the preventive measures were demonstrated with actual props and visual aids. The participants of the training workshop actively took part in the question-answer session and asked the WHO and CDA dengue experts for detailed information on dengue control strategies.
