KUALA LUMPUR: The number of smokers who wished to quit smoking increased more than two-fold throughout the Covid-19 pandemic period this year compared to last year.
This was reflected in the number of people who registered for mQuit – a free programme to encourage more smokers to kick the bad habit.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba told the Dewan Rakyat today that 3,442 smokers registered for the programme online at jomquit.moh.gov.my. from Jan to Oct this year.
This, he said, was a significant increase compared to the 1,678 people who registered for the programme last year.
"Of the total number of people registered for the programme this year, 95 per cent or 3,254 people registered their interest for the programme throughout the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) that came into force on Mar 18," he said.
Dr Adham was responding to an oral question by Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid bin Yusof Rawa (Pakatan Harapan - Parit Buntar) who asked the ministry to state the progress of smoking cessation programmes and the effectiveness of these programmes.
Prior to the implementation of mQuit, which is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between professional entities, non-govermental organisations and the private sector, Dr Adham said the government had spent RM2 million in 2018 and RM2.8 million in 2019 respectively to fund pharmacology costs to encourage people to quit smoking.
The initiatives which used Nicotine Replacement Therapy and Partial Agonist for Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor or Varenicline saw a reduction of participants due to the increase in the prices of the medications involved.
Dr Adham said this compelled the government to switch to implementing the mQuit programme.
The ministry, he said, is also hoping that the Finance Ministry would consider its request for all smoking cessation programmes to be funded using revenue collected from excise duty on cigarettes and tobacco.
He said greater allocation would help the ministry fund programmes which subsequently could help reduce the number of smokers in the country.
"At the moment, there are a total of 4.8 million smokers or 21 per cent of the country's population.
"Nevertheless, the number of people who wished to quit smoking is also significant at 2.3 million.
"At the moment, only 22,000 people who enrolled into mQuit have successfully been treated," he said.