45 teachers attend training on Trachoma awareness in Rubkona County

At least 45 teachers in Rubkona County of Unity State attended the one-week training on preventive measures and awareness on Trachoma disease that is currently affecting hundreds of people in the State.

The training which concluded on Wednesday was organized by the Rubkona County health officials and Christian Blind Mission (CBM) a local based NGO.

Kutey Gatdet, the Rubkona County health focal person on Trachoma, said the training will enable teachers to teach school children about trachoma prevention.

“We have also formed trachoma clubs in four primary schools and now we are training them and the purpose of training teachers is to eliminate trachoma and poor hygiene,” Gatdet told Juba Echo.

He said if teachers are ignorant about the eye infectious disease they would not be in position to educate their pupils.

Gatdet added that the training will be extended to other primary schools within Bentiu town and Bentiu internally displaced persons camp.

‘We are conducting training and formation of school trachoma prevention clubs, because this will reduce the spread of trachoma,” he disclosed.

Deploy Both Dungdit, a teacher in Nyuel Juol primary school in Rubkona town, said that the one week trachoma prevention training has enabled them to teach school children about trachoma prevention.

“This training comes at the right time, as I am talking now some school children are suffering from trachoma disease, but since we are trained we will use this knowledge to prevent trachoma in school compounds,” he said.

Both said they are monitoring all pupils in schools to ensure they are in good health.

“Every pupil is mandated to wash his or her face before entering the school compound, yes we have washing buckets with water and soap in the school compound,” he said.

The Unity State Ministry of Health last week reported increase in the number of Trachoma cases in seven counties and Ruweng Administrative area.

In June, the ministry of health and partners supported eye operation for over 41 Trachoma patients.

Trachoma is a disease of the eye caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis.