TUBERCULOSIS & TOBACCO
Download WHO Tuberculosis and Tobacco Factsheet
www.who.int/tb, www.who.int/tobacco
A strong association
• Smoking substantially increases the risk of tuberculosis (TB) and death from TB
• More than 20% of global TB incidence may be attributable to smoking
• Controlling the tobacco epidemic will help control the TB epidemic
• Smoking is a risk factor for TB, independent of alcohol use and other socioeconomic risk factors
• Smoking increases the risk of TB disease by more than two-and-a-half times
• The WHO monograph on TB and tobacco describes other linkages and evidence
Correlation of high-burden TB and high-burden tobacco-use countries 40%
• 5 countries feature in both the top 10 high-burden TB and top 10 high-burden tobacco use countries
• 40% of the TB burden in India may be attributed to smoking
• A dramatic reduction in smoking and exposure to indoor air pollution in China could reduce TB incidence by up to half by 2033
THE TUBERCULOSIS EPIDEMIC
− 2 billion people are infected with the TB bacilli
− TB is a disease of poverty with the vast majority of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries with more than half of all deaths occurring in Asia
− 9.27 million new TB cases in 2007
− 1.75 million people died from TB in 2007
− 5% of all TB cases have multidrug-resistant TB
THE TOBACCO EPIDEMIC
− More than 1 billion people smoke with nearly 70% of them living in low- and middle-income countries
− Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death
− More than 5 million people die per year from tobacco use. Unchecked, the epidemic will kill more than 8 million people per year by 2030
WHO-recommended policies to combat tobacco and TB
• re at risk of TB infection
Control tobacco everywhere, but especially where people ames
• Coordinate national TB and tobacco control program
• Cross-train TB and tobacco control health workers
• Register TB patients’ tobacco use and offer them counselling and treatment
• Promote and enforce smoke-free policies, particularly where TB services are delivered
− ASK TB patients about their tobacco useADVIS
− RELEVANCE: ensure TB patients know their treatmewill be more effective if they quit s
− RISKS: point out all the risks of continuing to smoke including the risk of TB relapses
− REWARDS: educate the TB patient about the many other benefits of quit
− ROADBLOCKS: ask the TB patient to identify obstaclesto quitting smo
• Egypt, Indonesia and Nepal, smoking cessation actions have been introduced • In the majority of the primary health-care facilities of Kyrgyzstan, smoking cessation In PAL pilot sites in
place through PAL •
In TB-care services in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, smoking cessation has been included
NEXT STEPS
• Monitor, evaluate and document smoking cessation through PAL and TB-care services •Expand successful pilot projects to other target