Managing Mozzies

The Pacific Regional Vector Borne
Disease Project

Student Activities

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1. In small groups create an ABC radio programme which interviews various `experts' on the best way the Australian Government can assist Pacific Island countries to reduce the incidence of vector borne diseases.

2. Imagine that you are a group of health administrators in either Fiji, Solomon Islands or Vanuatu attending a conference. Decide and list what you think are the main issues in preventing the spread of a vectoral disease among any population. Present this to the conference.

3. Write and deliver a speech as the Health Minister of either Fiji, Solomon Islands or Vanuatu outlining the need for and significance of the Vector Borne Disease Project in the Pacific.

4. Design and create a user-friendly health education pamphlet to be distributed among villagers outlining how to prevent the occurrence of Malaria.

5. Contact a medical doctor and interview them about the symptoms of Malaria, Dengue Fever and Filariasis. Is diagnosis difficult for any of these? What is the most effective treatment for these diseases?

6. Conduct a Pacific Island Forum with members of the class representing various Pacific Islands. The task of the forum is to develop a regional strategy to prevent the spread of vector borne diseases in the case of an outbreak on one of the island nations.

7. You are an Australian Government official visiting Fiji, Solomon Islands or Vanuatu. Write a diary entry which outlines how the environment is changing within one of these countries. What are your opinions about how these changes might be linked to the continued existence of vector borne diseases in the Pacific?

8. In small groups, imagine that you are a group of Pacific Island and Australian research scientists. As part of this project you want to find out more about vector borne diseases. You have decided to create a data base on the diseases. Decide the types of information you want to collect and record over the next 4 years. Present this and justify your inclusions.

9. Construct and draw a flow chart of the benefits that are hoped for the peoples of the Pacific region through the Pacific Regional Vector Borne Disease Project.

10. Imagine that funds for the project were suddenly and unforeseeably cut. You must advise the minister which section of the project should be considered a priority to maintain over the others? Justify your reasons.

11. What sort of equipment and resources do you think that laboratories, doctors and administrators might be requesting under this project to improve diagnosis, detection and monitoring of the diseases? With a partner develop a project equipment list.