Anti-TB Campaign



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Anti-TB Campaign

The TB awareness campaign initiated by IPA-SF, was conducted by HUMERA KHAN COLLEGE OF PHARMACY students on 20th feb’09. Four campaigns were done in 1 day at Malad East and Dahisar East slum areas. There was a lot of enthusiasm seen in the students to organize this campaign and they really did a great service to humanity by enlightening the poor and illiterate people about the deadly disease, tuberculosis. Presently, on a global scale, 3 million people are affected and suffering because of TB and out of 3 million 2.2 million TB patients are found in INDIA. This situation is mainly due to ignorance about this disease and the unhygienic conditions prevailing in our country in the lower class society. The students only contributed a little, seeing the whole scenario which is prevailing in our country, but surely an initiative was taken towards the issue and all efforts taken by the students to create awareness was met with an overwhelming response. The students first visited the slum areas of Malad East. They had many banners which were quoted in Hindi and Marathi, the contents of banner mainly stressed on DOTS centre and ‘No Spitting’. The people in the area were so surprised to see young students visiting their houses wearing lab coats that they considered them to be doctors. People were first asked to attend the campaign in which they were going to be informed about tuberculosis. They first hesitated but later turned up due to sheer persuasion of the students that it would benefit them. The campaigning started with a skit in which a person named Gopal was continuously coughing and his friend suggested him to visit a doctor. He first ignored but later he went with his friend and the doctor after completing the check up prescribed medicines which needed to be taken regularly. Gopal was irregular in taking the medicines and his misery increased 3 folds, his friend suggested him to visit the doctor again. The doctor was surprised to see his condition worsen and after doing several tests found out that he was suffering from TB and as this disease is air borne it was contracted by his friend too. But the doctor assured Gopal and his friend that if the medicines are taken regularly and continued for a period of 6 months he would be completely cured. This skit made the people aware that taking medicines regularly plays a vital role in curing TB. Apart from educating the people about tuberculosis, its symptoms, cure, prevention and treatment, they also made the campaigning very interactive by questioning the people about the knowledge they possessed about TB. It was shocking to know that nobody had any idea of this disease. Leaflets were distributed amongst the people so that they would get a brief idea about TB and to those who couldn’t read it the contents of leaflet which was written in Hindi was read out. The children who attend schools were asked to read the charts which had description about symptoms of TB , precautions needed to be taken to avoid this disease, about the DOTS centre, and also the banners in which it was quoted not to spit here and their and spread this awful disease. The students then a gave brief idea about how this disease spreads, the medicines needed to cure them, about the sputum microscopy test which is the most accurate test to know whether a person is affected by TB and also about other tests like x-ray, skin test and mantoux test. Basically the campaigners stressed on DOTS (DIRECTLY OBSERVED TREATMENT SHORT COURSE). It was made clear to them that all the problems related to this disease can be solved in DOTS and this centre provides free treatment and medicines to its patients and 100% cure regarding TB. Women were basically approached and were made aware of the fact that TB DEATH RATE had females comparatively more than males. This piece of information was given by the student who had enacted the role of doctor in the skit. The reason given by doctor was that females don’t get proper nourishment because they always neglect their own health in fulfilling the demands of their families and hence their immune system is not so strong to combat the bacteria of TB. The doctor also made it clear that spitting, sneezing and coughing in open were very unhygienic habits and this facilitated the spreading of TB more. A skit was then performed which showed the access of mycobacterium tuberculosis inside the body and the action of white blood corpuscles in defeating the villain (TB bacteria). It mainly had the message that when our immune system is strong our WBC’s fight the bacteria and destroy it but if we discontinue our medicines and turn irregular then our WBC’s turn weak and instead get defeated by the strong bacterial infection. At the end if we turn regular and don’t neglect our health the medicines have their right action inside the body, the defense force of our body i.e. WBC’s turn strong again and fight the bacteria gaining victory over them. The whole skit made the public aware about TB a lot and they were asked to use handkerchief when they cough or sneeze in public to prevent its spreading at a larger scale. TB patients were advised to wear masks and visit DOTS centre near to their area to get complete treatment. People were then questioned about how TB spreads, What is the period of getting completely cured, Which organ it affects the most, Which centre to visit to get a treatment and check up done, and surprisingly by the end of campaigning the whole mass knew every tiny detail about TB. Questions were raised form the public too, they questioned whether TB spreads via water and whether it’s a contagious disease? Satisfactory answers were given by the students to their questions and relieved them. The people were so anxious to know about the address of DOTS that all of them had it and promised to go their and get a check up done on 24th march for sure because it’s the WORLD TB DAY . The students then went among the public with feedback forms in which simple questions were asked about TB and they were required to tick the right answers. 2 ballot boxes were kept in which name, age, contact no. and address of the person was known and he signed in the paper saying “hum DOTS jaayenge”!! and put it inside the ballot box. A register was also circulated among the slum people in which records were made if any person had TB or in their family is suffering from TB and immediately the students provided them with the address of DOTS and recommended them to visit their soon. In Dahisar the campaign took place at a slum area named Ketkipada and the students came across TB patients and told them to visit Y.R TAWADE DISPENSARY which is a DOTS centre near Dahisar railway station and get themselves treated their. Their records were also registered by the students. When we ended the campaign the people were so happy and pleased to have us their giving information about TB that they profusely thanked us. We took out rallies at Malad and Dahisar both the places and the slum children accompanied us too. 32 students had gone from H.KC.P for this TB awareness campaign and it was through the efforts of all the students that we could communicate and spread awareness among the masses so well that we got full support, co-operation and 100% response from them. The whole campaign got the students to understand the ground reality of the slums and how ignorant they are. The students had organized 4 campaigns but still felt it would have been better if they could campaign at more places with an aim to eradicate TB completely from the society. We finished campaigning but still believe a lot can be still done if each one takes the responsibility of making the poor and deprived aware of this deadly disease so that we wake up for a TB FREE TOMORROW!!! This campaign wouldn’t have been possible without the kind support from the Management and Faculty of H.K. College of Pharmacy. MOUMITA MUKHERJEE S.Y. B.Pharm
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