Preventive medicine and annual checkups are the key to a healthy lifestyle, free of complications. The Jeddah Stop TB Youth Group has been spreading awareness and information about tuberculosis (TB) for the last 7 years, to save the future generation from this curable disease.

“This year 15 internists joined us for the TB awareness campaign. I hope our initiatives will work so we will reach our goal of stopping TB from spreading,” said Mohammed Bakhrieba, leader of the group.

Stop TB Jeddah Youth group started an awareness campaign on World Tuberculosis Day (TB Day) in collaboration with the Directorate of Health Affairs in Jeddah and the World Health Organization (WHO). The 10-day campaign started on March 22 at Serafi Mega Mall and will continue in Red Sea and Andalus Malls in Jeddah.

“The campaign focuses on observation and life style,” said Bakhrieba. “It’s very important for the public to know more about the disease as a number of house maids come from poor countries, where the rate of TB is high. When people know the symptoms, they can take better care of the disease, by taking the patient to a big hospital instead of a polyclinic. Here, they can start the treatment on time,” added Bakhrieba.

This year’s slogan for the campaign is “Stop TB in my lifetime”, a call for people to do some work and eliminate TB as a cause of death.

Sultan Al Otaybi , 6th years medical student at King Abdulaziz University and campaign leader, said that it’s important to spread awareness about the disease, especially when combined with diabetes or smoking.

“We have a very high number of diabetes patients in the Kingdom. Patients with type 2 diabetes run a higher risk of contracting TB, because of their altered immune system. TB is a leading cause of death among people who have been infected with HIV. Smoking increases the risk of TB infection,” said Otaybi.

“People with diabetes should regularly check their blood sugar levels. HIV patients should test for TB annually to find out if they have Latent TB Infection (LTBI). The prevalence of TB infection is higher among current or ex-smokers than among those who never smoked,” he added.

Bakhrieba also said that taking pictures of children and parents with the Stop TB banner will help in bring their voice to the politicians and leaders that we can stop TB in this life time.

Ali Al-Ghamdi, medical intern at King Abdulaziz University also said that people should keep in mind that small things matter. The poorer areas should be checked regularly, because that is where the disease can spread easily. He said it’s the municipality’s duty to keep those areas clean.

Tuberculosis is an airborne disease. It is mainly transmitted through close personal contact and isn’t nearly as contagious as the flu. To prevent infection people should cover their mouth when coughing, sneezing or laughing, carefully dispose of used tissues, breathe in fresh air when possible and take a rest.

According to a 2012 report, Indian doctors have registered the country’s first cases of “totally drug-resistant tuberculosis,” a long-feared and virtually untreatable form of the killer lung disease. Most of these cases were not a person-to-person infection but were mutations that occurred in poorly treated patients.

Dr. Paul Nunn, a coordinator at the WHO’s Stop TB Department in Geneva, said there is ample proof that these virtually untreatable cases do exist.

Dr. Kenneth Castro, director of the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination said, “It is a big concern anytime when we see something like this, we better get on top of it before it becomes a more widespread problem.”

Taking antibiotics for six to nine months can easily cure TB. However, if that treatment is interrupted or the dose is cut down, the stubborn bacteria battle back and mutate into a tougher strain that can no longer be killed by standard drugs. The disease then becomes harder and more expensive to treat.