Proejct “Immunizziamo” has been developed by Onlus “Alessia e i suoi Angeli”, Prof. Giuseppe La Torre at the Sapienza Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Rita Carsetti at the “Bambin Gesù” Paediatric Hospital and the children’s Explora Museum in Rome.

The objective is to help children in elementary school, along with their families and teachers, to understand the importance of vaccines by exploiting new technology and board games. The project will be conducted at the Rome Istituto Nicolai, where first and second grade children will play with cards, puzzles, posters, book and videos that explain how herd immunity works. At the end of the programme, an app will be used to evaluate the children’s understanding through an interactive questionnaire developed by the Italian Immunology and Allergology Society (SIICA).

The programme is organised into two phases. During the first, held on March 11, teachers and parents were involved in an interactive session with ad hoc multimedia material (videos and slides). On April 11 and May 16, further meetings will be held with the Roman school children. On May 28, at the end of the project, a final day will be held at the children’s Explora Museum in Rome, where they will be able to use their new knowledge in interactive labs and exhibitions.

The project will also scientifically evaluate the children understanding of these topics. A questionnaire will analyse their initial understanding of the issues and the Sapienza Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases will conduct a final statistical analysis and synthesis of the results.

For further Information
Giuseppe La Torre
Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome
giuseppe.latorre@uniroma1.it