#TapForATBFreePH for the Young and Young at Heart

Young and young at heart can now learn and spread more awareness about Tuberculosis (TB) while playing a game at the convenience of their own home.

The #TapForATBFreePH was designed to support the implementation of National TB Health Promotion and Communication Strategy — #TBFreePH in order to generate one million pledges from online users while raising awareness and funds for the TB elimination program in the Philippines.

“This is a good opportunity for people, especially children and students, to learn more about TB while playing a game. Despite the huge amount of work and study load that they must deal with every day, we still want them to enjoy and feel light while learning at the same time. This is a good opportunity to educate people about TB especially now that they are mostly online during the pandemic,” said Dr. Anna Marie Celina Garfin, Medical Specialist IV of the DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau.

Players have to finish five different levels and must aim to reach the highest score to be considered as the top player.

The first level will require users to tap on the characters as fast as they can so they can remove them from the area where there are airborne TB bacteria. The more characters they remove, the more points they earn.

The second level, meanwhile, will ask users to tap on the characters that are showing potential TB symptoms such as cough, fever, weight-loss, and night sweats.

For the third level, players must remove the sputum container with TB bacteria from the group as fast as they can. The more containers they remove, the more points they earn.

The fourth level focuses on killing both normal TB bacteria and multi-drug resistant TB bacteria. Players must tap these bacteria multiple times and prevent them from destroying the lungs.

Finally, the fifth level will require players to tap on the mask buttons and proceed tapping the characters that are about to sneeze or cough to prevent them from spreading the disease. The more masks the players place on characters, the more points they earn.

Before players start the game, they will have the chance to pledge for a #TBFreePH and get a boost in time during the game for a chance to reach 1 million points and complete the game.

They can also donate via Gcash QR code to the Philippine Tuberculosis Society Inc. (PTSI), one of the partners of #TBFreePH in the elimination of TB in the country. With players’ donations, PTSI can continue to provide free chest X-ray scans to Filipinos as a first step in finding and treating persons with TB.

“We’re happy to partner with #TBFreePH on this endeavour as we aim to find and treat more TB cases in the country. We’re looking forward to having more users of this new game and we’re hoping that we continue to bring more innovative ideas like this as we navigate through this health crisis,” shared Dr. Camilo C. Roa Jr., President of Philippine Tuberculosis Society, Inc. (PTSI).

Play #TapForATBFreePH on www.tapforatbfreeph.com on its launch date on November 26, 2021 and see how you can be a part of #TBFreePH!