Drug company uses ‘Escape Room’ experience to educate public on dengue fever

Latin America

Drug company uses 'Escape Room' experience to educate public on dengue fever

A new gaming experience locks people up in a room together, challenging them to find a way out in a certain time. This form of entertainment is known as an Escape Room.

A pharmaceutical firm in Brazil is taking up the idea to spread knowledge about Dengue Fever.

CGTN’s Paulo Cabral reports from Sao Paulo.

It begins with a group of players getting briefed by the game master. They are told a key research file on a cure for dengue fever is at risk of being stolen and destroyed.

The game master watches them through cameras, and throws the players tips when they ask or when they’ve gotten stuck. The whole idea behind the game is to get people to learn how to prevent and fight dengue fever, while having fun.

The subject matter is serious. Through puzzles, tips and signs, players learn there is no country more affected by dengue than Brazil.

In Brazil, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, also behind Zika, is principally behind its spread. Participants need to pay close attention to the material they’re presented if they want to get out of the room with the files.

An executive from the pharmaceutical company sponsoring the event, the maker of a vaccine for Dengue Fever, said the plan is to encourage people to act on the information they receive.

“In the last two years, we had about 2 million cases with about 1,500 deaths, so we need to find ways, creative ways, to keep the subject of dengue and its prevention in evidence throughout the entire year,” Arthur Zeraib of Sanofi Pasteur said.