Rawalpindi-December 02 (Online): Pro Vice Chancellor Academics National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Maj Gen Saleem Ahmed Khan (Retd) here on Thursday emphasized the need to raise awareness of dengue, saying, role of university students could work as a catalyst in checking its spread across the country.
He was speaking at a seminar on “Awareness and Stop the Transmission” of the dengue which was organized by NUMS Department of Public Health at its PWD Campus here Thursday.
He said the students had a great potential and talent in running such campaigns as they had ably demonstrated through their presentations and small documentaries today. The students gave a “wonderful presentation and everything was done excellently”, he added.
Lauding efforts of the Faculty and the students, he said, their campaign would further bolster efforts of the concerned authorities in creating awareness about dengue as precautionary measures could help prevent its spread.
He congratulated Faculty members and students of Public Health, Multidisciplinary Sciences and Social Sciences & Humanities for being active in dengue awareness campaign. He assured them of his support in future activities to promote the university’s extracurricular activities.
Pro Vice Chancellor also gave away shields to the students who won different positions in inter-departmental competition in making documentaries, videos or designing dengue awareness pamphlets.
In her remarks Head of Public Health Prof Dr. Uzma Hassan said the Directorate General Health Services, Islamabad had initiated an anti-dengue campaign since January in line with guidelines of WHO. Dengue fever, she said, was a social disease and could not be controlled without involvement of students who could be in the vanguard of disseminating anti- dengue messages at their homes and community.
Of the cases reported from Islamabad, 23 per cent were in the age group of 20-29 years and most of them were the University students.She appreciated the hard work of students in designing Dengue awareness banners, standees, flyers and distributing them in the vicinity of NUMS to create awareness about dengue which is spread by mosquito bites.
Earlier in their documentaries and presentations, the students on the occasion brought spotlight on the causes of spread of dengue and urged the households to take needed measures to prevent its spread. They said water stagnation inside and outside houses, were working as breeding grounds for dengue.
Highlighting symptoms of dengue like high fever, pain in joints and persistent vomiting, they said its incubation period was three to fourteen days. The Faculty and students organized a walk in the campus at the end of the seminar. Dengue has already affected 44,415 people in Islamabad, Sindh, Punjab, KPK, AJK and Balochistan.
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