Students reach out to community

Protecting the community: Pre-medical student
Nasser Mohamed makes the most of his experience
as a volunteer for the NHA's Immunization Campaign.

"There is a goal to eliminate the polio virus worldwide, and that can't be done without the cooperation of parents, teachers and others in the community," second-year pre-medical student Nasser Mohamed said. His comment came as he volunteered for the National Health Authority's (NHA) Mass Immunization Campaign earlier this month.

The Qatari student highlighted the importance of educating community members about the benefits of immunization so that health professionals could do their jobs more effectively.

" Vaccination is important - it can protect children against many harmful diseases," he said.

Keen to protect the community in Qatar, Nasser joined teams of doctors and nurses from the NHA's Communicable Disease Control & Prevention section, and other student volunteers from the Medical College, in the second round of the Campaign.

The aim was to ensure immunity against the wild polio virus in children aged two months to five years.

Students actively participated in the administration of oral polio vaccine (OPV) drops to children at schools and kindergartens in Doha, and assisted health care professionals in educating the community about the importance of immunization generally.

Moving in the right direction: Essa Abuhelaiqa,
a Qatari, helps the National Health Authority
in its latest immunization efforts.

"The OPV is completely harmless. This is the second dosage we are administering (the first was in November, 2006) and it will activate protection against the polio virus," Nasser explained. Only children with parental consent were given the vaccination.

Nasser said the week of volunteer work had given him experience and taught him how to deal with children when they were being immunized.

He compared his experience during the observerships at Hamad General Hospital with the immunization campaign: "This has been special because we're dealing with kids. It's not so easy dealing with children - it's hard for them to understand that being immunized is to their advantage.

First-year pre-med Srihari Buddhavarapu
spends his vacation time helping immunize
children against the polio virus.

With previous experience of the NHA's 2005 immunization campaign, and knowledge of the polio virus, storage and administration procedures for the vaccine, gained during workshops at Hamad Medical Corporation, Nasser said the student volunteers were well prepared for their role in the Campaign.

"Experience shapes knowledge and this is part of our future career, so it's been a valuable way to spend my vacation time," he said.

Another second-year pre-med, Essa Abuhelaiqa, said it was great to be involved in an activity that was closely related to medicine, noting that usually pre-meds study the basic sciences, rather than medicine; the campaign was an opportunity to take part in activities closely related to patient care.

Report by Krista Dobinson, Assistant Editor/Writer