MINA, 31 December 2006 — The Health Ministry’s Anti-Tobacco Awareness Campaign took Haj as an opportunity to carry out a vigorous campaign against smoking. Dr. Abdullah Al-Badah, head of the campaign, said it was hard to gauge the percentage of smokers among the pilgrims but he estimated at least one third smoked.
“It is a great opportunity for a large-scale anti-smoking campaign. There are almost three million pilgrims, half of them from the Kingdom, whether citizens or residents,” he said.
Al-Badah, who is heading the campaign for the fifth consecutive Haj, used statistics from other Arab countries to emphasize his point. In Egypt, the rate of male smoking was 40 to 60 percent and 10 to 15 percent among women. In Lebanon, 40 percent of women smoke.
The campaign took the form of raising public awareness about the health risks and economic cost of smoking.
The Saudi Arabian Airlines’ in-flight magazine — Ahlan Wa Sahlan — was used to reach the million or so pilgrims it carried this Haj. The campaign was conducted in eight languages that represent most of those spoken by the pilgrims.
“We also used 15 million free meal packs — three million packs each day over the five days of Haj — donated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. We put our anti-smoking warning on the food packets to send our message to the pilgrims,” he said.
Arrangements were also made with 45 foreign medical missions to deliver anti-smoking lectures to pilgrims in their residences and camps.
Overall, Al-Badah was optimistic. “We know that we are dealing with millions of pilgrims and we may not be able to assess the immediate impact of our campaign, but we believe that our efforts will bear fruit some day.”
Cold Snap to Continue
A health care specialist told pilgrims that the current spell of cold snap might continue during the remaining days of Haj and that they should take precautions against weather-related diseases.
Dr. Muhammad Falih Al-Nufaie, head of the internal medicine department at the Medical Emergency Tower in Mina, said that cold-related diseases were likely to spread quickly among the large numbers of pilgrims no precautions were taken.
“The most common diseases in such weather conditions are upper respiratory tract infections — flu, common cold and sore throats — and lower respiratory tract infections — pneumonia, for example,” he said.
“Pilgrims should make an effort to protect themselves from exposure to cold-related diseases,” he stressed.
Al-Nufaie said there are two kinds of patients. The first is chronic — those with diabetes, liver or cardiac problems or bronchitis. Patients of this type should have consulted with their physician in their home countries on how to act when infected with cold-related diseases and should have taken the necessary vaccination before setting out for Haj.
The second type is patients with non-chronic diseases who might catch the upper respiratory tract infection due to their exposure to crowds and the cold weather.
To prevent catching such diseases, Al-Nufaie, gave some tips: avoid mixing with infected people; avoid sudden movement from hot places to cold places and vice versa; keep away as much as possible from crowded areas, refrain from smoking and avoid sleeping in the open.
Al-Nufaie said the treatment of these conditions depended on whether the patient was chronic or non-chronic and on his immunity level. Non-chronic patients could be given the usual treatment of antibiotics and analgesics together with lot of liquids, he said.
