{"id":5748,"date":"2017-06-20T14:26:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T14:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faceinews.com\/?p=5748"},"modified":"2017-06-20T14:26:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T14:26:04","slug":"powerful-tb-cough-campaign-shows-that-tobacco-use-is-fueling-indias-tuberculosis-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/?p=5748","title":{"rendered":"Powerful \u201cTB Cough\u201d campaign shows that tobacco use is fueling India\u2019s tuberculosis epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TB<\/a>India becomes the first country to launch a national mass media campaign establishing the link between smoking and tuberculosis<\/strong>
\nChennai- June -2017 \u2013The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India,<\/strong> has launched the world\u2019s first national tobacco control mass media campaign to warn people of the increased risk of tuberculosis (TB) and dying from TB associated with smoking cigarettes or bidis, or being exposed to second-hand smoke. Vital Strategies congratulates the MOHFW on the launch of this important public health campaign, which reveals to the public the links between two of India\u2019s most pressing health challenges. The campaign is centred on a Public Service Announcement (PSA) entitled \u201cTB-Cough\u201d, which has been developed and implemented with technical support from Vital Strategies.
\n\u201cTB Cough,\u201d launched to coincide with this year\u2019s World No Tobacco Day, graphically shows that while a smoker\u2019s cough tells the smoker they have a health problem, a persistent cough over two weeks or more could indicate that problem is TB, as smoking increases the risk of TB and dying from TB. It goes on to show a father smoking and coughing beside his daughter, noting that exposure to second-hand smoke brings the same risks. The PSA ends with the stark warning that \u201cEvery bidi cigarette brings you and those around you closer to TB.\u201d The campaign will be broadcast for a duration of two weeks on all major government and private TV and radio channels, as well as community radio channels, in 17 languages, for pan-India reach.
\nJos\u00e9 Luis Castro, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vital Strategies,<\/strong> commented, \u201cWe congratulate the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the launch of this important campaign, which will reach millions of Indians. Tobacco-related diseases and TB are socially and economically costly, representing real threats to development in India. Too many lives and livelihoods are being lost due to these health epidemics, so it\u2019s important to show people that they can and should change their behavior to protect themselves and those around them. It\u2019s also important that this campaign shows that bidis, which often escape proper scrutiny, are as harmful as cigarettes in terms of increased risk of TB. The campaign sends out a strong message to citizen across the country. We also need policymakers to heed its message, and take action. The prevention of tobacco use and TB requires urgent attention both at the state and national level, and would be accelerated by using the new GST to tax bidis commensurate with their harm.\u201d
\nHealth experts have long known that tobacco products like cigarettes and bidis are associated with a higher risk of TB and dying from TB \u2013 for smokers, people exposed to second-hand smoke, and bidi workers. This is one reason why civil society is advocating for bidis to be included in the highest tax slab of the new GST, along with all other tobacco products.<\/p>\n

The 30-second long PSA was rigorously pretested with a target audience who found that \u201cTB Cough\u201d\u00a0was\u00a0\u2018easy to understand\u2019, \u2018believable’, \u2018made respondents stop and think’, and \u2018made respondents feel more concerned’ about smoking around others. The PSA also made respondents ‘feel sympathetic to those with TB’,\u00a0\u2018made them feel concerned about symptoms of TB\u2019,\u00a0\u2018made them more likely to visit a doctor if they had TB symptoms,\u2019\u00a0and ‘increased their confidence to take TB medications if they got sick’.\u00a0Overall, respondents understood the main message of the PSA and it resonated well with them.<\/p>\n

Link to the PSA: https:\/\/youtu.be\/h01U_0vvkCU\u00a0.\u00a0<\/strong>
\nStills and a transcript of the PSA are available upon request.<\/p>\n

Tobacco use in India \u2013 a growing health and economic problem<\/strong>
\nAccording to The Tobacco Atlas, nearly a quarter (23.2 percent) of adult males, 3.2 percent of adult females, 5.8 percent of boys and 2.4 percent of girls smoke tobacco in India. In total, more than 2,542,000 children and more than 120,000,000 adults in India use tobacco each day. As the use of all forms of tobacco has increased, so has tobacco-related disease and premature death. Tobacco is the cause of 14.3 percent of male deaths and 4.7 percent of female deaths in India, killing over 981,100 Indian citizens every year.
\nResearch has shown that mass media campaigns and graphic health warnings on tobacco packs are one of the most effective means to prompt people to stop smoking. They are one of the World Health Organization\u2019s M-P-O-W-E-R (W=Warn) strategies to reduce tobacco consumption. M-P-O-W-E-R\u00a0strategies are endorsed and promoted by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, of which Vital Strategies is a principal partner.<\/p>\n

About Vital Strategies<\/strong>
\nVital Strategies envisions a world where every person is protected by a strong public health system. \u00a0Our team combines evidence-based strategies with innovation to help develop sound public health policies, manage programs efficiently, strengthen data systems, conduct research, and design strategic communication campaigns for policy and behavior change.\u00a0 Vital Strategies was formed when The Union North America and World Lung Foundation joined forces. \u00a0It is an affiliate of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).
\nTo find out more, please visit vitalstrategies.org or Twitter @VitalStrat<\/strong><\/p>\n

For further information or to arrange an interview with a Vital Strategies public health and tobacco control expert, please contact Tracey Johnston, Vital Strategies, at +44.7889.081.170 or tjohnston@vitalstrategies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India becomes the first country to launch a national mass media campaign establishing the link between smoking and tuberculosis Chennai- June -2017 \u2013The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, has launched the world\u2019s first national tobacco control mass media campaign to warn people of the increased risk of tuberculosis (TB) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-hopes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5750,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5748\/revisions\/5750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}