On World No Tobacco Day, 24 March, the National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) reminds the public that stopping tobacco smoking is an important part of the fight against tuberculosis (TB).

 

The combination of cigarette smoking and tuberculosis is far deadlier than previously believed. In South Africa, smoking increases the risk of dying from TB by 60%. One in five South Africans die from TB because they smoked cigarettes. Locally, smoking causes more deaths from TB than from lung cancer.

 

Tobacco smoking is associated with an increased rate of infection, diagnosis, treatment failure and death from TB. Studies from India, China, the UK and South Africa have confirmed that smoking is an established risk not only for cancers and heart attacks, but also for TB. A lung damaged by tobacco offers a favourable environment for the TB bacterium to grow.

 

“Smoking and tuberculosis are two huge preventable epidemics," says the NCAS, “and by reducing smoking we can also reduce TB deaths. A positive spin-off of tobacco control laws is its contribution to stopping TB.”