Students impress vet at Eat Jamaican expo
Published:Friday | November 24, 2017 | 12:00 AM
The number of young students who took an active interest in the booth hosted by the Veterinarian Division at Wednesday's Eat Jamaican Expo at the Jamaican 4H Club Headquarters, 95 Old Hope Road, Kingston, caught veterinarian Dr Kevin Walker by surprise, especially since they kept staff members on their toes.
"I was very impressed," Walker admitted to The Gleaner. "I don't know if it is our mannequin that pulls them over here, but we had different animal cut-outs as well. So they came over and they were interested."
ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE
The recent observation of Antibiotics Resistance Week resulted in many of the pamphlets on display being dedicated to the worrisome issue of antibiotics resistance, a concern for medical professionals across the world. The scientific nature of the literature did not deter the children who pressed the veterinarian with their on-point questions.
"I was telling them about antibiotic resistance spread, what causes it, and how to take their antibiotics right, as well as different aspects of antibiotics resistance. I named one of them a bacteria, one of them an antibiotic, and one of them resistant to antibiotics to explain to them the process," he explained.
"I told the student who was the bacteria that the antibiotic can kill him whenever you get sick, but the anti-resistant one, whenever you get sick over time, if you use antibiotics wrong, they can't kill you anymore. So that's how I broke it down to them, and they were very receptive."
The Veterinarian Division is an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, and the topic discussed with the students is matter of major concern, according to Walker.
"Antibiotic resistance is becoming a worldwide problem, and predictions are that we will soon be at the area where we can't use antibiotics to treat anything."