These days though, fever could mean dengue or probably infection of some sorts.

Before, when a child is brought to a doctor to be checked because he/she has fever, the doctor would usually check for lymph nodes, check the throat, look in the ears and prescribe fever medicine. But now with dengue fever as a year-long sickness, someone, not just children, with fever that lasts for more than two-three days should have his blood tested to check for a possibility of having dengue fever.

When my youngest child had her check-up last week, she was given antibiotics for her tonsillitis and we were instructed that if her fever still persists after two or three doses, we should go back and have her blood checked. I see no problem with that since the doctors and nurses (these nurses wear colorful pastel-colored or Cherokee uniforms) in that hospital are really good with children. I was scared though of the possibility, of the “What if she has dengue fever…?”

Thank God it wasn’t dengue. But the summer rains, it isn’t a surprise if there are people who will have that illness because according to the doctor, they have several dengue cases in that hospital already. Sigh…

Unilab Ideas Positive believes in the youth’s ideas that will make positive difference to the communities they have in mind. Unilab Ideas Positive is a social marketing clinic and competition that gives the youth a place where they can share innovative and sustainable ideas concerning the health and wellness of their communities of choice. These ideas are given the chance and platform to be a reality.

How can Unilab help the youth make their health and wellness ideas in Unilab Ideas Positive as concrete programs that will help communities?

• 3 day marketing boot camp to learn from experts the current social marketing approaches and relevant case studies
• seed money for the implementation of their program which will run for six months

College students from North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao can now join 2012 Unilab Ideas Positive. More communities will now benefit from the health and wellness programs the youth have as ideas because fifteen, yes, 15 teams will each be given Php100,000 seed money from Unilab Foundation for the implementation of these social marketing programs. This means a total of Php1.5 million seed money will be for these health and wellness programs.

This is an opportunity to give back to communities and help them be healthier through these health and wellness programs. Healthier people means healthier nation.

Now on its third year, Unilab Ideas Positive gets even better with a focus not only on positive ideas, but also on positive outcomes—creating a difference where it matters, in partnership with the Filipino youth.

We all want a healthier nation, right? Start sharing your idea by visiting www.unilabideaspositive.com

Unilab Ideas Positive started last year because of the increase in problems affecting communities regarding hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, disease prevention and intervention, as well as environmental care and protection.

Through the Filipino trait of Bayanihan spirit,  that of working together to achieve a common goal, Unilab knows that these problems can be given solution when two or more teams or organizations work together.

Unilab aims to not just provide these youth groups with the venue for them to make themselves heard but to help them turn thier ideas into reality. The youth groups then are able to be more creative in shaping their ideals and sense of social purpose in looking for solutions with the problems they see regarding health and wellness in their communities.

Unilab Ideas Positive Award:

A seed fund worth PhP100,000 will be awarded to the winning team. This award money will be used for the implementation of the social marketing program for the communities they have chosen. The two runner-up groups will be given PhP75,000 for their programs.

Unilab Ideas Positive 2010 winner:

University of Asia and the Pacific’s (UA&P) Team Biggkas was last year’s winner. Their “farm in the city” concept, a hydroponics gardening program aimed to teach housewives in Barangay San Joaquin in Pasig City to have their own sustainable source of vegetables, was chosen. Last April, the moms were able to harvest lettuce and kangkong.

The local government of Pasig City has expressed a desire to replicate the same program in other barangays.

Unilab Ideas Positive includes these provinces for 2011: Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan and Rizal.

How to join:

• Form a team consisting of five college students
• Submit ideas to http://www.unilabideaspositive.com
• Deadline is on July 18, 2010

After ten semi-finalists have been chosen from all the teams who have submitted their positive ideas, they will undergo a 3-day camp in August. 2009 CNN Hero of the Year Efren Penaflorida and social marketing guru Dr Eduardo Roberto will help the teams with their social marketing plans.

From ten semi-finalists, five finalists will be chosen to face a multi-sector panel of judges. This panel of judges will pick the team who will the seed money from Unilab.

More info here: Unilab Ideas Positive

Find Unilab Ideas Positive on Facebook.

The youngest daughter said she needs to make a food mobile consisting of food rich in Vitamin A. Before she told me what she needs to do, I already know she will be doing this Food Mobile like last year. I was actually thinking of making a fruit basket, like that fresh organic fruit basket my friend orders from the North. A real basket with “fruits” made of stuffed and shaped papers.That would be more fun than just drawing fruits on hard paper, coloring these and tying strings to hang on a hanger.

Nutrition Month is important for a country with dwindling resources and ballooning population of 94 million people (and counting…).

People sometimes have this thought that more expensive food will give them more nutrition. Nope. The “lowly” malunggay for one, easy to grow and have a high yield is one of the local food that can give a lot of nutrients that growing children, pregnant and breastfeeding moms and everyone else need to be healthy.

Let us all be careful with what we “put in our mouth” and not just be conscious with those that are delicious but instead eat food because these are healthy.

Anyway, one time, my eldest daughter looked at me and said: “It seems like Zumba didn’t help you lose weight. You stopped hulahooping and dancing here at home when you enrolled. You even stopped running and walking (this is debatable because whenever we ask them to go to where we do this, they protest and seem to drag their feet)”

I was definitely tempted to Google the top diet pills for women right there and then when she talked to me about not doing my usual “fitness” routine at home. But of course, mulling about what she said made me stop and think that yes, she is right.

Zumba classes will resume next week. I will enroll again of course and now that the children will be in school the whole day, I can go back to my “Dance like no one is watching” thing.

Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan (LBK) was launched in Capas, Tarlac and was attended by 1,500 Aetas from Barangay St. Juliana. Maternal heath services like pre-natal check-up and counseling were included in the health fiesta. Educational activities were also done with the children.

Asuncion Anden, DOH Director on Health Promotion said that Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan aims to have engaging, memorable and fun experiences during the different LBK health fiestas scheduled.

Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan is the DOH’s health reform agenda on Universal Access to Health program.

“Making health and medical services readily accessible to the public has always been one of the priorities of the province. And with programs like LBK promoting health prevention and education in a fun and entertaining approach, we can look forward to a future when households will be competent enough to keep their families healthy and productive,” Tarlac Governor Yap said.

This is the bus for Lakbay Buhay Kalusugan’s mobile counseling and examination clinic for the women and children. During the event, participants can learn about health practices through interactive exhibits, entertainment shows and fun activities.

Please click on photos to see in bigger resolution.

The LBK health fiesta caravan will travel to 10 provinces in its first year.

• Tarlac, Pangasinan, and Nueva Ecija in Luzon;
• Bohol and Negros Occidental in the Visayas;
• Bukidnon, Zamboanga del Norte, Compostela Valley, South Cotabato, and Maguindanao in Mindanao.

LBK is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Victory Liner Inc., Melawares, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Air21, OMF Literature, Green Cross, Dakila – Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, Center for Community Journalism and Development, Manila Broadcasting Company, UNTV, Philippine Press Institute, and the Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates International, Inc.