JEDDAH: Smokers in Saudi Arabia spend a whopping SR5 billion every year on 40,000 tons of tobacco, according to a top medical executive. “The amount is equivalent to the total sum spent by the Kingdom on the import of rice,” Dr. Magdi Mohsen, public affairs manager at Pfizer Inc., Saudi Arabia, said at the launch of an anti-smoking clinic at the Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday.
Dr. Sami Badawoud, director at the Ministry of Health Affairs in Jeddah, was among those present at the event hosted by New Jeddah Clinic Hospitals in collaboration with Pfizer.
Dr. Mohsen called for launching a “Rice for Tobacco” campaign so that smokers could be made aware of the potential illnesses caused by smoking and can protect themselves from some 90 percent of cancerous illnesses.
“International efforts to combat smoking have focused on two main factors — to enact legislations prohibiting smoking in various places and developing an effective medical treatment for nicotine addiction,” Dr. Mohsen said. “The launch of “Varenicline” known as “Champix” is a breakthrough and a major step forward in that direction,” he said. “Varenicline” or “Champix” prevents nicotine from getting attached to receptors in the brain, which results in developing an addiction and helps minimize nicotine withdrawal symptoms thus helping the smoker to quit, he added.
“We, at the New Jeddah Clinic Hospitals, are proud to actively contribute to the consolidated anti-smoking efforts. It is our mission to promote the ‘Healthy Youth Without Tobacco’ motto which has been adopted by the World Health Organization through the launch of the first private anti-smoking clinic in the Kingdom,” Dr. Khaled Hamed Mutabagani, vice chairman, New Jeddah Clinic Hospitals, said.
Some recent studies confirm smoking as one of the main causes of deaths in Saudi Arabia and worldwide. “The number of smoking-related deaths in the Kingdom has exceeded 30,000 in 2008, said Dr. Mutabagani. “Between 2000 and 2004, the expenses incurred on the treatment of smoking-related diseases in the Kingdom soared to some SR12 billion. Such a huge cost has been causing an immense economic burden on the health care sector thus affecting the overall economy,” he said, adding that recent reports by the WHO have classified smoking as an addiction that requires treatment.
Dr. Mutabagani said the launch of the clinic was in response to calls from official quarters, health experts and members of the community in the Kingdom to fight smoking.
Dr. Sherif Refaat, consultant pulmonologist, at the New Jeddah Clinic Hospitals and fellow of American College of Chest Physicians, gave an example to illustrate the economic loss resulting from treating COPD, a disease that is directly linked to smoking.
Commenting on smoking hazards, Abdullah Al-Srouji, manager of Anti-Smoking Awareness Charitable Society in Jeddah, stressed the fact that smoking was a sort of addiction linked to certain habits. He called for intensifying efforts to help smokers quit the habit.
