Last Wednesday, the Phyrtual Innovation Gym hosted over 50 students from the Ciampino Liceo Vito Volterra for the first module of Project Viral but Healthy [see news: Let’s Speak about Health]. The students focused on the social value of prevention not just as an individual act but as attention, respect and care for the entire community.

The morning kicked off with the precious contribution provided by two researchers and volunteer podcasters, Ilaria Zanardi and Valeria Cagno, who were connected in videoconference from Genoa and Geneva. The researchers involved the students with short questionnaires on Instagram stories: @scicast from Podcast Scientificast. What is prevention? Why are some people afraid? What are antibiotics? What happens with antibiotic abuse?

"Somebody jokingly answered tha vaccines are like milk – and the answer is not completely wrong. The answer also served to learn that thanks to a bovine virus, the first prevention system against chickenpox was invented, developed and diffused,” explains Carlotta Di Filpo who coordinates the project.

Concentrating on the same issues, but from a different perspective, Deborah Arceri, an immunologist and family doctor, pointed out that she has over 1200 patients.

"With such a wide and heterogeneous basin, the family doctor has identified a trend. In the 9 minutes or so of a visit, patients are often only looking for confirmation to what they learned by consulting Doctor Google,” explains the doctor. Doctor Google does not have a degree in medicine and nor does YouTube, another place providing information. What are the risks? Fragmented information, misunderstandings and even outright fake news.

By the end of the day, students had received a solid introduction to technical-scientific content and advice on tools to use for incisive communication. They are now ready for the next challenge.

A university professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the Catholic “Sacred Heart” University, Stefania Boccia often speaks with young men and women. Prof. Boccia presented an exhaustive review of the main milestones in the history of prevention. In particular, she provided the students with a key to understand some of the pathologies that could be drastically reduced, in terms of impact on the population, thanks to preventive medicine, such as HPV and certain forms of hepatitis.

The introductory lab to the "White Hackathon," the second appointment of educational project "Viral But Healthy," ended with a presentation by Nicoletta Vulpetti, digital communications expert. She illustrated the main tools used for communications campaigns.

“Viral but Healthy” is a Fondazione Mondo Digitale Project developed thanks to funding from MSD Italia. The objective is to develop an awareness raising programme on the risks and prevention of infectious diseases that will actively involve young men and women.

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