The Director of Health Protection and Communicable Diseases, Control at the Supreme Council of Helath, Dr Mohammed Al Hajiri. (left) and Secretary General of Qatar Red Crescent, Saleh Al Mohannadi, during the press briefing yesterday. Abdul Basit
By Fazeena Saleem
DOHA: As certain types of communicable diseases are on rise among the low income workers, with tuberculosis having a high impact, a campaign was launched yesterday to improve awareness among this sector.
Many low income workers are from TB epidemic countries, who live in high-density labour camps, they are grouped in the same camp rooms and at the risk of the infection spreading fast, according to Director of Health Protection and Communicable Diseases, Control at the Supreme Council of Helath (SCH), Dr Mohammed Al Hajiri.
“Tuberculosis spreading is a serious problem as the impact it makes is high, although there are not many cases found,” he said addressing a press conference at the Supreme Council of Health yesterday. Diseases such as chicken pox, respiratory infection and influenza are also more common among the workers.
‘Wekaya’ the awareness campaign will be implemented over three years through several phases by the Supreme Council of Health together with the Qatar Red Crescent (QRC).
“The campaign will be held for a period of three years as large number of workers is in the country and many will continue to come, so its important to have a long term campaign,” said Dr Al Hajiri. “It will adopt the best practices for health education about inflectional diseases, which were proven in different regions of the world to be successful,” he said.
The first phase of the awareness campaign will begin next month together with the Qatar Red Crescent to prevent workers being infected by communicable diseases. They will also be educated on ways of transmission, diagnosis and treatment of communicable diseases.
“The hygiene standards of labourers are not up to the mark. They should know how to be hygienic and healthy,” Secretary General of Qatar Red Crescent, Saleh Al Mohannadi said. According to Al Mohannadi, the worker’s health centre in the Industrial Area receives around 20,000 cases per month.
Therefore the campaign will begin at the health centre in the Industrial Area for four months as a pilot project. It will also reach forty companies and educate its workers on communicable diseases.
A total of 10,000 personal hygiene kits will be distributed among the workers. And the first phase of the campaign will also distribute leaflets in languages including in Arabic, English, and Urudu. Lectures, seminars and exhibitions too will be held among the workers.
Further, medical staff in the Industrial Area too will be trained about combating communicable diseases. The Peninsula
