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  • Reimage Your Health Education Class

    Reimage Your Health Education Class

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    Traditional classroom instructor, Mr. Dean Sahbroo, has a great job. He gets to school every morning at 8:00 am, reboots his computer, turns on the projector, and unzips the day's lesson plans from the mini drive he carries around on his key chain. The computer screen initiates and little icons start appearing, then after a few moments in the middle of the screen a tiny hoop shows a clockwise circulating pulse. Around and around it goes and after about a minute of this Mr. Sahbroo realizes the LED on his mini drive is not flashing. He tries unplugging it and plugging it back in again.

    Nothing.

    Dean concludes his computer system must be "hung up." He grabs the mini drive out of his computer and walks over to the administration office to ask the cheerful school assistant, Ms. Dunelle Carple, if she could try loading it on her computer. She obliges. Sure enough the LED starts flashing and a folder image appears on her screen. She clicks on it and then launches a document called "Third Grade Lesson 1 & 2:"

    MAJOR AREA : The Human Body
    GRADE : Third Grade (Lesson 1 & 2)

    TOPIC : Circulatory System
    EMPHASIS : Anatomy & Physiology – Heart and blood vessels

    MATERIALS: PPT. DVD. Worksheet.
    CONTENT :

    Power Point Lecture

    1. Description of Heart
    2. Hollow muscle
    3. Weight 11 oz.
    4. Size of

    brrympht . The document closes unexpectedly and after a few moments in the middle of the screen a tiny hoop shows a clockwise circulating pulse. * pop *. A dialogue message box appears "Warning: Removable Drive Unreadable." Dunelle picks up the phone and calls the help desk. She describes slowly step-by-step what happened on their computers and what she and Mr. Sahbroo have done. Suddenly the normally cheerful expression on Ms. Suddenly Carple's face turns ashen.

    "Reimage?"

    Reimage is a term used in association with computers. Essentially it means your operating system has slowed down or crashes too often because some software became damaged, corrupted or plagued with 'bugs.' During the re-imaging process everything on your computer system is removed and then reinstalled or better yet replaced with an upgraded version. Most people are deathly afraid of re-imaging and opt to simply reboot their system by turning it off and on again.

    A quality health education class requires more than a simple rebooting process. The above hypothetical scenario of loading a prepackaged health lesson to be taught by someone not professionally prepared to teach health illustrates just one obvious pitfall of over-reliance on one form of technology (for a few more pitfalls see "Death by PowerPoint" from Don McMillan ). Technology can certainly help with instruction, but up to this point it has been a great unrealized hope in educational reform.

    Other repetitive routines including outdated lectures, recycled worksheets, and over copied quizzes need to be replaced with authentic or lifelike activities and assessments that engage the students. Students do learn what they live. Health topics relate most intimately with a student unlike other traditional class subjects. Leave it those other classes to describe the heart as a 'hollow muscle.' Students in health class can feel their own pulse and talk about what it means to "have a heart."

    Once the static lifeless instruction is removed, then the lessons can be resuscitated with the students themselves breathing life into the learning activities. How this sense of authenticity extends beyond words can be found in the lyrics "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield, "No one else can feel it for you, Only you can let it in." Through in class activities students record their own comprehensive health textbook with an inner voice.

    Topics such as eating disorders, alcohol related problems, harmful ways of relating, and childhood obesity to name a few can be discussed in small groups then shared with the whole class. So a student is not alone reading a textbook but supported by peers in a skit creation, a game, a Socratic seminar, or a project. Sometimes the work created can also serve as the assessment. This style also lends itself well to treatment of emerging current wellness topics such as new allergies or diseases.

    In review it should be noted that over reliance on power point slides should be avoided, health should be taught by those who were professionally trained to do so, and lessons must include authentic activities in which each student can relate to their own personal health and wellbeing . Unlike traditional lectures the life-like activities can be fun! Once you reimage health education is in this manner students will retain more of the information because the way in which it was learned made it more memorable and enjoyable enough to last a lifetime.

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    Source by Schuyler Antane

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  • Benefits of Public Health Education

    Benefits of Public Health Education

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    Public health education can be considered an ambiguous term. It teaches the proper way to improve one’s health, and can involve only one or two people, or the population of several countries. Anything that can seriously threaten the physical, mental, or spiritual health of a wide range of people, notably due to their interactions with one another, can be classified as a threat to the community’s public health. This is why public health education becomes a necessary tool to aid people against the spread of potential diseases and illnesses. Five of the most important reasons of how public health education can prove beneficial are as follows:

    1. People are able to learn how to prevent the spread of communicable diseases through the training and methods being taught in education. People are able to have better access to information regarding general prevention of diseases, including the knowledge of what to do and how to act during epidemics in their area. Certain diseases have their own individual prevention methods that people should be well aware of, and employing these techniques lessens the risk of being infected by possible diseases. Through public health education, even simple things such as wearing a flu mask in particularly affected areas, or knowing when to take vaccines for a particular illness that is prominent at that time of the year, always proves very effective in limiting the number of people affected annually.

    2. More people are able to access private and public medical institutions to prevent diseases or medical conditions, or to better treat them. Without the benefits of a public health education, most people may feel healthy enough and not find the need to go for a general check-up. Being aware that it is necessary to see your doctor regularly is one of the important things learned in a good public health education. Most medical hospitals and clinics offer immunization or vaccine shots during the flu seasons, or when a general outbreak of hepatitis is going around, and a public health education ensures that more people know to go to these facilities and avail of the treatment, thereby lessening the amount of ill people.

    3. People are able to adopt a healthier behavior to lessen the risk of diseases being spread among themselves. Keeping things cleaner around the house, opting to lessen or quit smoking altogether, or exercising more are just a few of the many different ways taught in public health education to combat sickness and improve one’s lifestyle.

    4. People become more aware of information relating to the disease, rather than believing in just public perception. Public health education not only deals with how to prevent illnesses, it also provides details of how a disease works, which may dispel some myths and fallacies about it in society. The HIV virus for example, can be spread through unprotected sexual intercourse, but not through activities such as kissing or touching. This also helps change a person’s views towards someone infected, promoting more empathy rather than discrimination.

    5. People are able to help and contribute to disease prevention by supporting or volunteering at health care facilities. Public health education is more than just spreading information; it also calls people to actively participate in aiding others. To be able to protect one’s health, it is also necessary to protect the health of other people around you, and helps foster a more close-knit community and a better sense of camaraderie.

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    Source by Jes B

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  • Schistosomiasis elimination: refocusing on snail control to sustain progress

    Schistosomiasis elimination: refocusing on snail control to sustain progress

    Substantial progress has been made during the past decade to prevent and control schistosomiasis (also known as bilharziasis) globally. The disease affects more than 230 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Progress is mainly due to large-scale periodic treatment of affected populations with praziquantel, the only medicine recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) against all forms of schistosomiasis. Regular treatment cures mild symptoms and prevents
    progression to severe, chronic disease.

    “Through progressive scale-up of periodic large-scale treatment
    to control morbidity in many endemic countries, we are closer to
    achieving the minimum target of 75% global coverage of all school‐aged
    children,    ” said Dr Amadou Garba Djirmay, who leads WHO’s global schistosomiasis control programme. “But
    if we want to achieve elimination, we must go a step further to
    introduce snail control in hot spots and in areas targeting elimination.
    This is bound to increase impact and accelerate progress towards
    interruption of transmission    .”

    Expansion of treatment is largely supported by donated praziquantel from Merck KGaA of up to 250 million tablets annually. In 2018, almost 78 million children were treated, representing 63% of all school‐aged children eligible for treatment.

    Transmission: role of snails

    Schistosomiasis is an acute, chronic parasitic disease caused by infection with trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma. It is prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas, especially in poor, rural communities that have little or no access to
    safe drinking‐water and basic sanitation. Infection is transmitted when people suffering from schistosomiasis contaminate freshwater sources when evacuating urine and faeces containing the parasite’s eggs.

    Once an egg comes into contact with fresh water, it releases miracidia (hatchlings) which enter a snail and produce hundreds of cercariae (larvae) daily. The cercariae enter the human body on contact with the skin and develop into adult worms.

    Besides treatment with praziquantel, eliminating snail hosts and improving sanitation are important methods for sustainable prevention of the disease. Dam and irrigation projects are known to be potential sites for outbreaks of the disease. Snail management,
    often achieved through mollusciciding, can help to reduce transmission by eliminating these intermediate snail hosts.

    Vector control

    In 2017, the World Health Assembly – WHO’s decision making body – adopted resolution WHA70.16 on the Global Vector Control
    Response, calling on Member States to develop or adapt national vector control strategies and operational plans. The strategy aims to reduce by at least 40% the incidence of vector borne diseases, including schistosomiasis, by 2025.

    In response, WHO is reinforcing snail control as part of its strategic approach to achieve the target of eliminating schistosomiasis as a public health problem and, ultimately, the goal of elimination of transmission. Snail control will complement mass
    treatment campaigns and sustain the public health impact of this core intervention.

    To facilitate implementation of snail control, in 2019 WHO published on specific, standardized procedures and criteria for efficacy
    testing and evaluation and in 2017 a manual on the use of molluscicides in the field. WHO is also planning to strengthen capacities
    of health staff in medical malacology in order to reinforce snail control activities in countries.

    In the past, molluscicides (particularly niclosamide1 based products) were widely used in schistosomiasis control programmes. For example, in China programmes largely relied on snail control for over 30 years to overcome the disease as a public
    health problem. In other parts of the world, however, snail control programmes were gradually discontinued and competencies faded away.

    “Snail control is a crucial component of the global schistosomiasis elimination strategy,” said Dr Rajpal Yadav, Scientist, WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases. “It
    is time we look for new snail control products that are cost–effective
    and of low risk to humans and the environment. Some efforts are being
    made to explore molluscicide compounds from plants, marine algae and
    microorganisms    .”

    An integrated control strategy involving mass treatment with praziquantel, snail control and environmental modification, wider access to sanitation and safe water, economic and environmental development, health education and poverty-alleviation can greatly
    contribute to sustainable control and elimination of schistosomiasis.

    WHO’s new road map on neglected tropical diseases for 2021–2030, due to be launched later this year, advocates enhanced financial and political support to achieve the target of interruption of transmission. Additional research to address gaps,
    develop tools and optimize the impact of existing programmes with snail control will complement the core strategic approach.

    Schistosomiasis: forms of the disease

    There are two major forms of schistosomiasis – intestinal and urogenital.

    Intestinal schistosomiasis usually results in diarrhoea and blood in the stool; enlargement of the liver and of the spleen and portal hypertension are common in advanced cases.

    Urogenital schistosomiasis is characterized by the presence of blood in the urine. Chronic infection results in fibrosis of the bladder and ureter that can evolve to hydronephrosis and create conditions for bladder cancer.

    In women, urogenital schistosomiasis can cause vaginal bleeding, pain during sexual intercourse and nodules in the vulva, a condition now described as female genital schistosomiasis. In men, urogenital schistosomiasis can induce disease in the seminal
    vesicles and prostate.

    1Limitations with the use of formulations based on niclosamide include restrictions on the usage of water immediately after application and temporary toxicity to non-target aquatic organisms including
    fish, amphibians and invertebrates. 

     

        Schistosomiasis elimination: refocusing on snail control to sustain progress
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        https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/25-03-2020-schistosomiasis-elimination-refocusing-on-snail-control-to-sustain-progress

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