A Report on Community Awareness Programme on Prevention and Treatment of Dengue

Date: 18th November, 2023

Time: 12.30 p.m to 1.30 p.m

Venue: Kulberia Vivekananda Primary School

As a part of its broader Extension and Outreach Programme and also in consideration with the severity of the ongoing Dengue epidemic in West Bengal, the Department of Social Work, St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata organized a community level awareness programme on prevention and treatment of Dengue fever. This initiative was initiated in a government aided primary school named Kulberia Vivekananda Primary School, located at Kulberia village under Bhanghar-II block of South 24 Parganas district. In the context of this initiative, active participation was ensured on the of about 120 school children, 5 school teachers, 17 MSW (Semester-III) students and 3 faculty members from the Department of Social Work, St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata. The main objective of this initiative was to generate awareness among school children about various aspects of Dengue fever with a focus on techniques and strategies for its treatment and prevention. During this initiative, all technical session were designed and facilitated by MSW students. The event started with an ice breaking session followed by a brief introduction about participants and also the purpose of having this initiative. The first technical session being facilitated by MSW students, was about Dengue fever as disease. During this session, participants were informed about Dengue with an emphasis on aspects like nature of disease, casual factors including virology, ways in which it spreads (Transmission), symptoms, associated complications and consequences, frequency and extent of spread, etc. The next technical session was on aspects relating to Diagnosis and Treatment of Dengue fever. During this session, vary basic level of information was shared among participants, on aspects like different diagnostic methods, strategies and techniques that are involved in treatment of Dengue fever, community level health related services and infrastructure that are available for diagnosis and treatment of Dengue. The last technical session was about important techniques and strategies that are to be adopted for ensuring prevention of Dengue fever. During this session, participants were informed about some of the most important techniques, strategies and practices that are to be adopted at the individual, family and community level, for ensuring prevention of Dengue. This includes aspects like reduction of mosquito habitat, usage of mosquito-nets, usage of mosquito repellents, usage of appropriate protective clothing, prevention of water stagnation, environmental sanitation, adopting appropriate practices relating to personal health and hygiene, etc. The event concluded with a question answer session being facilitated by MSW (Semester-III) students of St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata. The entire initiative was conducted in a participatory way whereby during every sessions, scope was created for having participatory discussion. As a result of this initiative, an enhancement was ensured with regard to the existing level of knowledge and understanding about diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Dengue among participants. It this expected that such an immediate outcome will not only help in bringing about necessary behavioral changes among students, but the same would also help in transforming such students into change making agents, at their family and community level. And such changes would actually contribute in ensuring significant reduction of Dengue cases in the community.