From left: HMC medicine department’s Infectious Diseases senior consultant Dr Muna Abdulrahman al-Maslamani, Dr al-Hajri, al-Mohannadi and SCH Communication and Media department’s Public Relations manager Hamad Jassim al-Hammar, are seen during the press conference yesterday.


By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter

The Supreme Council of Health and Qatar Red Crescent have yesterday jointly launched a national campaign ‘Wekaya’ to combat communicable diseases in the country.
The first phase of the campaign, covering around 10,000 workers is expected to kick off in September and last for four months.
This pilot phase will be carried out at some 40 companies and factories while subsequent phases is expected to continue within the next three years covering more number of companies.
The first year of the campaign will concentrate on health awareness and education while also focusing on reducing the spread of infectious diseases and improving awareness of infectious diseases prevalent in Qatar.
It will also include awareness of the spread of pathogens among expatriates, providing them with the skills to prevent the spread, treatment and capacity building of relevant partners to enable them to combat the diseases and carrying out research and studies related to communicable diseases.
There are presently, about 912,000 male workers in Qatar.
Speaking about the campaign at a press conference yesterday, the SCH Health Protection and Communicable Diseases Control section manager Dr Mohamed al-Hajri and QRC secretary general Saleh al-Mohannadi explained that the campaign seeks to improve awareness of expatriate labour workers about infectious diseases and provide them with the knowledge to enable them prevent being infected in addition to knowing more about some communicable diseases, their modes of transmission, diagnosis and treatment.
According to Dr al-Hajri, food poisoning, chicken pox, respiratory infections such as influenza and tuberculosis (TB) are the most common communicable diseases among workers in Qatar.
“During this campaign, we are going to be focusing on a number of priority communicable diseases such TB, chicken pox and food borne diseases like food poisoning,” the official said.
He explained that some of the diseases occurred due to over-crowding in labour accommodation as well as improper food preparation and storage while adding that TB is being included among diseases to address due to its serious impact.
“We are going to be campaigning against TB and what to do in case of an outbreak among the workers not because the disease is very common among them but because its infection can have very serious impact once it affects a person,” Dr al-Hajri clarified.
He said that part of the campaign will include workshop, seminars for healthcare workers at health facilities affiliated to labour camps.
This will be done by communicating with and educating the community through the activities of the Centre for Health Information, Dr al-Hajri said.
The campaign will also include interactive online workshops and lectures as well as awareness raising events to be held across the country in a bid to develop a culture of awareness and accurate public health information, particularly among the expatriate community.
The first phase of the campaign will focus on migrant health centres and workers health centre under the management of QRC in the Industrial Area, Wafideen, Ma’moura and Zikrit.
Health centre in the Industrial Area receives about 20,000 patients monthly while, Ma’moura medical centre receives 6,000 per month, Zikrit health centre 1,000 cases and Freij medical centre sees about 16,000.
The first phase will begin with the distribution of leaflets in a number of languages, including Arabic, English and Urdu, and training of medical staff on infectious diseases as well as personnel training at relevant health authorities, holding seminars, lectures, training workshops and exhibitions to raise awareness of infectious diseases among expats and the distribution of up to 10,000 personal hygiene kits.
The target diseases will be divided into four phases throughout the year with each phase focusing on a specific set of diseases and linking themes, campaigns, slogans and events with national and global health-related days.
“This joint collaboration with the SCH and HMC comes in light of our belief in the human rights of the labour force and our desire to alleviate their suffering.The campaign aims to prevent infectious diseases among expats and promote health and preventive actions in Qatar,” al-Mohannadi said.