ABSTRACT
Zika Virus is a member of the virus family flaviviridae and the genus flavivirus. It is spread by day time active Aedes mosquitoes, such as A. aegypti and A. albopictus. This is the same mosquito that spread and causes dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever
The first known case of Zika fever was reported in a sentinel rhesus monkey stationed on a tree platform in the Zika Forest in Uganda in 1947. Sexual transmission of Zika virus from men to women has been witnessed in at least 4 cases
Zika virus has also been isolated from semen samples. Cases of vertical perinatal transmission, from mother to the baby during pregnancy have been reported. WHO declared the couple of microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome [GBS] cases reported in Brazil are strongly suspected to be associated with the Zika virus outburst. Thus, World Health Organisation [WHO] declared that a coordinated and an organized international response is required to improve surveillance, identification of infections, congenital malformations, and neurological complications, to heighten the control of mosquito populations at risk, and to execute the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines to secure people from this international public health emergency
ABSTRACT
In the complex setting of a medical/dental school it becomes essential to utilize an approach to teaching and learning that is best suited to the needs of the students. For productive learning, teaching should facilitate development of logical approaches to a problem and to highlight especially those points which appear critical for students to understand. A cross-sectional pilot study was carried out at Karachi Medical and Dental College to understand the perception of medical students about the current methods of teaching, interactive sessions in lecture and also to identify the techniques, best suited in delivering the knowledge to students. Study participants included third year, fourth year and fifth year M.B.B.S students. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the information. SPSS version 16 was used for analysis of data. A total of 93 students participated in the study. 92.5% students believed lectures given to them are relevant and informative. About 87.1% students felt, lectures are beneficial before reading the topic from book. Approximately 86.0% of students preferred lectures to be interactive. The most preferred modality of teaching aid was found to be chalk-board, preferred by 73.1% students. The findings of pilot study suggested that a combination of conventional teaching methods with other methods such as, Animations, which is a 3D photographic model, PBL [Problem Based Learning] in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem. Students learn both thinking strategies and domain knowledge, Post-test in which students are evaluated for knowledge, they grasp after completion of lecture, often used in conjunction with a pretest to measure their achievement and the effectiveness of the lecture, and Doctor-Patient counseling sessions could be an effective way of teaching theory and clinical skills