Vector education to be undertaken in schools

Mar 15, 2011 News

The lack of awareness has led to many people creating suitable environments for the breeding of vectors, Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy has revealed.
He noted that information education strategies are among the most important components of the Health Ministry’s approach to prevent and control the impact of dengue. “We must educate every citizen that every action that they take might be an action that will either facilitate the breeding of the mosquito or it could help to control the mosquito population.”
Addressing this issue, the Minister said, should not be an option in the school system but rather every child must be taught vector control, even as he asserted that “there is no child who is too young or too old to learn. We have that obligation it must become part of the everyday responsibility of every teacher in our school.”
According to the Minister, Head teachers must ensure that teachers under their supervision engage students in vector control knowledge and activities, a process which must be monitored closely by the Ministry of Education.
“After all, our responsibility to each child is for that child to grow up and live long, healthy and productive lives.
But that can’t happen if our teachers are not armed with the knowledge. We have got to make sure that every teacher know these things…too many of our teachers are not knowledgeable in the way we control vectors.”
He pointed out that although the community asset- mapping that should establish the vectors is the responsibility of the public health professionals, disseminating such information should be the responsibility of all.
He noted that there is a need to ensure that parents and elders of the community must be educated. In addition, he said that the process of evaluation of businesses, even before they are allowed to construct or operate, should be ensured that such operations take into consideration the importance of guarding against the harbouring of vectors.
It was just recently that the Health Minister voiced his belief that the addressing of vectors can no longer be done with one-dimensional approaches.
He said that the time has come for “us to have an approach where we tackle the issue from all fronts.” This comment came as he addressed the impact of vector related diseases.
He pointed out that often this health challenge is looked at in a one-dimensional manner but rather it is a very complex issue. He highlighted that the increase use of fertilisers, for instance, can have a daunting impact on the proliferation of mosquitoes while the use of insecticides could have the opposite effect.
“How do you balance those things? The increase in urbanisation and the changing of rural communities to look more like urban communities can have huge impacts on the niches that we create and the ecology of the distribution of mosquitoes.”
This state of affairs, the Minister asserted, will no doubt have an impact on mosquito borne diseases even as he stressed that “there can be absolutely no equivocation at his point that the main vector in this Region for dengue is the Aedes Egypti which is currently spread across the country in all 10 Regions.”

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Vector education to be undertaken in schools

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