Jeddah’s ‘Stop TB’ group joins World Tuberculosis Day

A two-day awareness campaign on tuberculosis was launched here at five large malls — Serafi Mega Mall, Mall of Arabia, Red Sea Mall, Haifa Mall and Andalus Mall — and across restaurants and cafes in Jeddah on Wednesday.
The Jeddah-based “Stop TB” group joined forces with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Directorate of Health Affairs in Jeddah, the Ministry of Health and volunteers to launch their 8th annual Stop Tuberculosis (Stop TB) campaign and to raise awareness of its correlation with HIV to save future generations from the curable disease.
“Every year, the Jeddah TB group organizes this awareness campaign. This is the first time we join the HIV and TB awareness campaigns in one. The campaign highlights the symptoms of TB and courses of action when the symptoms occur. Once again this year, a number of volunteers from various medical institutions and hospitals have taken the initiative of spreading awareness in order to reach our goal of stopping the spread of TB,” said Mohammed Bakhrieba, leader and founder of the Stop TB campaign.
Over the past 7 years, the group has succeeded in spreading awareness among almost 35,000 people each year through different media outlets. In its first year, almost 1 million people participated with the help of TV channels and multiple media outlets.
“We have direct, face-to-face interaction with 30-35,000 people at malls, but also indirectly through songs, media, PR campaigns, videos, e-mails, Facebook, Twitter and other means that have enabled us to spread the word to millions of people both inside and outside the Kingdom,” he added
“Also this year, Lamborghini, McLaren, Bentley and Lotus have all gotten on board with our campaign. They will visit different coffee shops to raise awareness on TB, explain what it is, how to prevent it and how to help society in preventing its spread.”
“We will give youth the chance to enjoy a test-drive with us in order to attract a large number. Participants will be made to sign a commitment form prior to getting their free ride,” he added.
Amro Al-Khair, a 6th-year medical student and campaign leader at Andalus Mall, has said that it is vital to spread awareness, especially as to the effects of diabetes and smoking on TB.
“We are spreading information on TB and HIV through brochures, pamphlets and through one-to-one dialogue. There is even a small HIV test that can be taken here at the mall. People can also participate in a questionnaire via e-mail or using the iPad,” he explained.
He added that there has been a significant change on the awareness front though at the outset, many people do not know what TB is.
In Saudi Arabia, the disease is said to be under control. Approximately 4,015 TB patients were diagnosed in 2011 in the Kingdom.
According to a report issued by the WHO in 2011, there were an estimated 8.7 million new cases of TB (13 percent co-infected with HIV) and 1.4 million deaths from the disease, including almost 1 million deaths among HIV-negative individuals and 430,000 people who were HIV-positive.
TB is one of the top killers amongst women, with 300 000 deaths among HIV-negative women and 200,000 deaths among HIV-positive women in 2011. Global progress also conceals regional variations, with the African and European regions not on track to having an official 25-year mortality rate by 2015.