MARGAO, AUG 21
School teachers from Salcete were on Saturday instructed to maintain a register to record absenteeism of students in the classrooms in the wake of H1N1 flu.
At a workshop conducted for teachers by the South Goa disaster management authority as part of the drive to spread awareness on H1N1 flu amongst the students, Nodal officer Dr Geeta Kakodkar further instructed teachers to intimate to the Health Services if students from a given area are found absence for days together.
“If 10 students in a particular class are found absence and if they come from a same area, immediately contact the doctors for further action”, Dr Kakodkar said.
She said that there should be an awareness amongst the students and parents not to ignore any fever persisting for three days. If any person or student is suffering from any respiratory problem, they need to be admitted and administered treatment”, she added.
“Common cold should not be neglected anymore. The woman who died of H1N1 at Moti Dongor came to the Hospicio at a late stage. The situation would have been different if the woman was brought to the hospital at the initial stage”, she said.
Dr Kakodkar briefed the participants about the ongoing drive undertaken by the health services and asked the people to cooperate with the workers to ascertain any fever cases in the district.
District Collector, G P Naik appealed to the schools to cooperate with the district administration and the Director of Health services to contain the situation.
He told the teachers they are in a better position to explain H1N1 to the students, who in turn can convince their parents on the flu.
Naik said he has issued an order to the health services and the deputy collectors to coordinate on H1N1. “It is the responsibility of the local bodies to clean up breeding sites after the same are identified by the health authorities”, he added.
