The role of Instagram in public health education in COVID-19 in Iran.

Dear Editor,

SARS-CoV-2 infection pandemic (known as COVID-19) is one of the most severe health challenges worldwide in the last decades [1]. The rapid and widespread distribution of (CoVID-19) mandates global attention with local implementation. Till now, no definitive curative pharmaceutical has been introduced to clinic, so, based on many scientific sources, the most effective measures for disease containing remains the preventive strategies with dedicated focus on mass public education; especially in countries with outbreak treats [2,3]. However, this approach needs user-friendly measures; with rapid person by person transmission of the education materials.

Generally, COVID-19 spread is through hands of recipients while viral droplets would not pass if two meters safe distance between the infected person and the recipient is considered. This is why hand washing remains one of the most important preventive measure which is not often stressed enough. Add to this the most important area for viral entry: eyes, nose and mouth. The rapid transfer rate of the virus is an important factor needing public strategies to overcome: each person should be a trainer; so, “learning 20 other people” is considered as a training rule to overcome the virus spread rate considering the effectiveness of the educational tools, in an Instagram campaign, which uses two hashtags and phrases: #Corona2020 and #Corona-2020; these stand for:

At least 20 seconds hand washing with water and soap

At least 20 times per day doing the washing

At least, keeping away from any other human being for 2 m to perform social distancing

At least, disseminating this message to 20 persons

Besides, the last part of this campaign focuses on preventing any hand contact with the T areas of the face (eyes and eyebrows and eyelids), nose and nostrils, the mouth cavity and lips; T is the 20th word of alphabet

It also well evokes the year 2020 in which Corona pandemic occurred

This Instagram page was used as the medium for using this campaign:

https://www.instagram.com/alidabbagh_com/

The campaign had many positive feedbacks from followers with a number of posts being circulated in the community through social media including Instagram. Possibly, this could be used as an example of social media campaign in Iran with good media visibility.

Prevention through public person to person education still remains one of the most effective and least costly approach for COVID-19 in order to control the global pandemic [4,5]. Social media have an important role.