Smokers to get free nicotine gums
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, June 4
The district Health Department started the use of nicotine gums and nicotine patches for treating cigarette and other tobacco products addicts under the national tobacco control program.
Nicotine gums and patches are being provided free of cost to patients seeking treatment for addiction to tobacco products at 10 district hospitals in the state.
As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stipulated guidelines for nicotine replacement therapy, addicts smoking 1 to 24 cigarette/bidis in a single day must be prescribed to take up to 24 pieces of nicotine gums (as per severity of addiction) per day for 12 weeks. For addicts smoking more than 25 cigarettes in a single day, 4 mg (milligram) of nicotine gums (up to 24) are prescribed.
Similarly, for smokers who take up to 24 cigarettes in a single day are prescribed to stick one nicotine patch (21 mg) on any hairless body part for 24 hours before replacing it with fresh nicotine patch for two weeks.
Dr Arun Bansal, a psychiatrist at the Civil Hospital, said, “Nicotine gums and patches are highly effective only if complemented with regular counselling of addicts. As a majority of smokers or addicts of tobacco products visiting the government hospital are from low socio-economic background, they cannot afford to buy nicotine gums and patches that cost them anywhere between Rs 70 and Rs 100 (from private chemist shops) for the single day dosage. But now they will get it free so the health ministry’s move would be instrumental in treating more tobacco addicts.”
