Antabax steps up campaign with mascot and song

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Antabax, an anti-bacterial personal care range, and the Health Ministry have joined forces for the second consecutive year to raise awareness and accelerate handwashing behaviour change on a national scale through the 1Malaysia Hand Hygiene Month campaign, a mammoth health preparedness programme that will reach more than 3mil people this year.

Themed Hands of Health Across the Nation, the campaign is believed to be among the largest public-private hand hygiene campaigns ever undertaken in the nation with the purpose of reducing hand-borne communicable diseases and preparing the nation ahead of possible epidemics.

The Health Ministry, Antabax and the Malaysian Association of Health Education Officers (MAHEO), supported by Hospital Sungai Buloh, 10 private hospitals, transport hubs South Integrated Terminal and Semasa Sentral, more than 3,500 food and beverage outlets and 28 schools nationwide will target the young, healthcare professionals, transport and tourism frontliners as well as those involved in food preparation and service as they are often at high risk of contracting and transmitting communicable diseases linked to the hands.

Soap up: (From left) Antabax mascot Germ Buster with Ziana Zain, Kuek and Ng at the launch of 1Malaysia Hand Hygiene Month.

Malaysian-made Antabax is an antibacterial personal care brand that offers a complete range of anti-bacterial products that promote a more hygienic lifestyle for the whole family. It has been championing hand hygiene since the A(H1N1) pandemic in 2009.

According to Lam Soon general manager (household and personal care marketing division) Francis Ng, this year’s campaign is bigger in scope and reach with more creative elements to reinforce the need for good hygiene, including the introduction of the brand’s Germ Buster mascot and a specially composed hand hygiene song called Gosok, Gosok.

The highlight of the campaign’s launch was the mass pledging led by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin.

Also present were Lam Soon Edible Oils Sdn Bhd executive director (marketing and sales) Kuek Bak Heng, MAHEO president K. Manimaran, Hospital Sungai Buloh director Dr Khalid Ibrahim, local superstar and Antabax brand ambassador Ziana Zain.

Guests and delegates raised their voices and hands to sing along to the catchy Gosok, Gosok song that puts to music the seven steps of correct hand hygiene.

The campaign was showcased as a successful national health preparedness plan against pandemics to delegates from Malaysia and across South-East Asia at the conference.

The campaign has been carried out across primary schools in the northern and southern regions of the peninsula as well as in Sabah and Sarawak, with seminars and hand-washing demonstrations as well as the distribution of educational materials and products.

Approximately 50,000 schoolchildren and their families have been reached through this portion of the programme.

Seminars and demonstrations for food handlers and hospitals will be carried out throughout the month.

Antabax will be providing its hand soap and hand sanitiser to all organisations participating in the programme, as well as supplying them with educational materials such as posters and leaflets that were jointly developed with the Health Ministry.

“Our health is in our hands — clean hands do indeed save lives,” Ng said in reminding all Malaysians to practice good hand hygiene for better health.