Helping educate children about bugs

Date published: 19 January 2010

This month over 3,000 primary and secondary schools across the North West will be armed with the innovative teaching pack, ‘e-Bug’, to help students fight back against infections such as swine flu and Norovirus.

The e-Bug pack features hands-on activities, like a “snot runway”, and a website featuring cartoon characters with games to educate children. The interactive activities show children the effects of poor hygiene and teach the science behind bugs in a fun, easy-to-grasp way. Using e-Bug, children can learn how to protect themselves against common infections and swine flu.

The pack, which has been sent to over 20,000 schools in England, covers topics on microbes, hygiene, antibiotic use and vaccines.

It was developed by a team of healthcare experts at the Health Protection Agency's (HPA) Primary Care Unit after research in English and European schools found teaching about antibiotics and drug resistance varied widely. It also found the majority of hand hygiene and antibiotic campaigns were targeted towards adults, with few school-based resources available for children.

Dr Sohail Ashraf, Consultant in Health Protection from the HPA in the North West region said: “e-Bug provides practical information in a fun, hands-on way which means children are more likely to retain and use what they learn.

“With the current swine flu pandemic as well as seasonal flu, we have seen how children are not only more susceptible to acquiring viruses, but are also more infectious to others. Since many swine flu cases have been centred around school outbreaks, it is particularly relevant for schools to use e-Bug.

“e-Bug is also part of our battle to fight against antibiotic resistance, it educates children - our future generation of antibiotic users - about the importance of the prudent use of antibiotics. Antibiotics are currently the most common medicines given to children, and increased antibiotic use is linked to increased resistance. The more bugs that become resistant to antibiotics, the fewer medicines we’ll have to treat infections.”

e-Bug is endorsed by the Department of Health, Department for Children, Schools and Families and the European Commission. It features educational games for primary and secondary school-age children (9-11 year olds) and (13-15 year olds). This is to ensure that the concepts taught in the resource are appropriate for different age groups and that the messages are reinforced twice in a child’s schooling.