The Importance of Intramurals or Sports Fest in Schools

THE HISTORY

ELMER MITCHELL

Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized    within a particular institution, usually an educational institution,or a set geographic area. The term, which is chiefly North American,derives from the Latin words intra muros meaning "within walls",and was used to describe sports matches and contests that took place among teams from "within the walls" of an institution or area. The term dates to the 1840s. It is contrasted with extramural, varsity or intercollegiate sports, which are played between teams from different educational institutions. The word intermural, which also correctly means "between institutions"is a common error for "intramural".

The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan created the first intramural sports departments in 1913. Elmer Mitchell a graduate student at the time, was named the first Director of Intramural Sports at the University of Michigan in 1919 and the first recreational sports facility in the country opened at the University of Michigan. Mitchell is considered the "father of intramural sports" and taught a class in intramural sports taken by William Wasson, founder of the National Intramural Association (NIA), the forerunner to the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA).

Mitchell later authored Intramural Athletics (ED Mitchell - AS Barnes, 1928), and Intramural Sports.He co-authored Intramural Sports with Pat Mueller.
Today, "intramural" tournaments are still organized within a specific community or municipal area, between teams of equivalent age or athletic ability. For example, intramural sports programs are often organized on college campuses to promote competition and fun among the students.
For most schools and campuses, intramural sports are used to promote wellness and allow students who do not compete on a national (NCAA) level an opportunity to be active.

Here are the reasons why sports fest or intramural is held in a school:

 

1. Intramural are held in school with the objectives of developing the psycho-motor of the students, this way they will able to channel their energy and time the right way.

2. To promote camaraderie and rapport among the students, instructors and administrative staffs. In other words, this undertaking is poised to build a strong bond and cohesion.

3. To instill and inculcate discipline among the students. Engaging in sports will help students refrain from various forms of vices such as drugs, smoking, drinking and even gambling.

4. To teach them the value of teamwork. In real work environment teamwork is one of the most valuable attribute an employee should have. Ability to work well with other people with efficiency and efficacy, can lead you to promotion and security with your job tenure.

5. To know the value of sportsmanship. Ability to accept bitter defeat is a sign of maturity and the ability to bounce back strong, triumphing over your adversary will able you to experience immense joy like no other. No matter what is the outcome, win or lose, stand up high and accept the outcome of the game. If you lose rebound stronger next time, practice your craft and learn from your mistake. If you win however, never rest on your laurels, keep practicing and always maintain your fierce fighting form. Improve even further and don’t let pressure beat you during actual competition or grow excessively boastful and arrogant because you are on top. Stay humble.

6. To showcase your talents in your chosen field of endeavor to the spectators, so that others will emulate your character, perseverance, winning ways and awesome talents, if ever you are a prime athlete of your school.

7. To develop healthy competition among the participants.

8. To develop fair play among the athletes. Cheating is null and void, same can be said with dirty tactics.

9. The ability to shine even under pressure. Being in front of many people will help you get rid of being nervous. This is important since this will aid students in the coming years, while they hunt for jobs or when they have jobs already.

10. Improve the personality of the students.
Intramurals or sports competition is essential to the well-being of the students. Sports instills how to win, how to accept defeat, how to interact with other people and how to mold them to have desirable character traits that are vital in achieving success in the future.

EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE

 

Key facts

• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
• EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
• The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
• Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
• Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.

        Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. 
          
        

Transmission

                 Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
                Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.
               Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.
              Among workers in contact with monkeys or pigs infected with Reston ebolavirus, several infections have been documented in people who were clinically asymptomatic. Thus, RESTV appears less capable of causing disease in humans than other Ebola species.
              However, the only available evidence available comes from healthy adult males. It would be premature to extrapolate the health effects of the virus to all population groups, such as immuno-compromised persons, persons with underlying medical conditions, pregnant women and children. More studies of RESTV are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn about the pathogenicity and virulence of this virus in humans.

Signs and symptoms

      EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.

               People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. Ebola virus was isolated from semen 61 days after onset of illness in a man who was infected in a laboratory.
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.

Diagnosis

              Other diseases that should be ruled out before a diagnosis of EVD can be made include: malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, cholera, leptospirosis, plague, rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, meningitis, hepatitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.

                                                                                                                                          
             WHO has created an aide–memoire on standard precautions in health care (currently being updated). Standard precautions are meant to reduce the risk of transmission of bloodborne and other pathogens. If universally applied, the precautions would help prevent most transmission through exposure to blood and body fluids.
             Standard precautions are recommended in the care and treatment of all patients regardless of their perceived or confirmed infectious status. They include the basic level of infection control—hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment to avoid direct contact with blood and body fluids, prevention of needle stick and injuries from other sharp instruments, and a set of environmental controls.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/