Bird flu awareness campaign to target early learners

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 11/13/2008 10:34 AM  

The government will kick off a new round of avian influenza awareness and prevention campaigns in elementary schools to help the country with the largest death toll from the virus to consolidate its progress in defeating the largely fatal disease. 

Younger primary school students will learn of the threat of bird flu through a government awareness campaign, while older students will be taught about the disease as part of their natural science curriculum, said Mudjito, director for kindergartens and elementary schools at the Education Ministry. 

He said students would be encouraged to adopt healthy habits as measures to avoid infection. Younger students will learn how the virus is transmitted and about ways to recognize infected poultry, he said. 

"We are preparing three modules to help teachers deliver the campaign messages to students. First, on the importance of community awareness to tackle bird flu. Second, on what the H5N1 virus is; And, third, on how to tackle the virus," Mudjito told reporters on the sidelines of an Education Ministry seminar entitled The Improvement of Awareness on the Danger of Bird Flu in Elementary Schools 

About 300 principals, elementary school teachers, school supervisors and representatives of local education agencies in Greater Jakarta attended the event. 

The campaigns will reach a number of schools in eight provinces hit hardest by the virus: Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, North Sumatra and Gorontalo. 

Mudjito said the Education Ministry had conducted the campaigns in tandem with, among others, the Health Ministry, the National Committee for Bird Flu Control and Pandemic Awareness and the German government's Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). 

The Health Ministry will prepare materials for the modules, and the GTZ will distribute them to elementary schools throughout the country, Mudjito said. 

Deputy head of the national bird flu committee Emil Agustiono told the seminar the campaigns were crucial to preventing an avian influenza pandemic, which could potentially claim a significant number of lives and cause short-term economic losses of up to Rp 48 trillion. 

"Economic activities would be paralyzed as people become sick or afraid of becoming sick. The long-term losses will be even bigger," said Emil, also deputy for the coordination of health and environment education at the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare. 

The first case of human infection was recorded in Indonesia in 2005. As of October 2008, the number of cases had reached 137, including 112 fatalities. 

The infection and fatality rates have fallen since 2007. 

The committee's head Bayu Krisnamurti has claimed the declines were the result of successful prevention campaigns, including those targeting students. 

The campaigns implored students to wash their hands before eating, ensure their parents thoroughly cooked poultry before serving it and to keep away from live poultry.