Teachers to help fight vector-borne diseases

LUCKNOW: For the first time in the city, 1600 school teachers will join the fight against dengue and other vector borne diseases. At present, they all are getting trained by the health department for the same.

“School teachers were chosen for the task of disseminating knowledge about controlling mosquito menace this year. We had asked for one teacher from each government school from the district inspector of schools (DIoS),” said Dr Narendra Agrawal, chief medical officer, Lucknow.

Under the initiative, 1600 teachers, in a group of 50, are being trained on how to apprise students of methods of cleanliness and also the measures that they can take to keep mosquito at bay. These tips will be shared by the teachers in the classrooms. “With one teacher, we will be able to reach around 100 families via the students. We could not achieve this number if only our teams took the rounds in the district,” said Dr Agrawal.

Till now, 700 teachers have been trained by experts at the CMO office.

Since monsoon was expected to reach its peak in a fortnight, such preparedness was required, said officials.

Lucknow had 291 cases of dengue and 2 deaths in 2017. Also, 81 cases of chikungunya, 8 cases of Japanese encephalitis (JE) and 104 cases of acute encephalitis syndrome were reported.

In 2018, 35 cases of dengue have been reported till now, besides, 39 cases of chikungunya and 2 cases of JE.

“Since every teacher is from different school, they can explain the training’s information to other teachers and hence we will be able to reach a larger number of families,” said Dr KP Tripathi of the CMO office.

Apart from this, hospitals across the district have been asked to have enough beds for patients of vector-borne diseases. Big hospitals will keep 10 beds and small hospitals will have 4 beds such patients.

Also fever desks will be started at all hospitals to provide

1600 SCHOOL TEACHERS WILL JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST DENGUE AND OTHER VECTOR BORNE DISEASES

speedy treatment to patients having fever, the most common symptom among patients of vector-borne diseases.