The focus of this year's World No Tobacco Day is 'tobacco and lung health' and is of course highly relevant to tuberculosis (TB). Smoking is one of the key drivers and among the top five risk factors of TB as highlighted in the 2018 WHO Global TB Report. It doubles the risk of a person developing TB, resulting in an estimated 830,000 people developing TB in 2017. Smoking also affects recovery and cure of people who have TB and increases the risk of onward transmission to others. It also increases the risk of recurrent episodes of TB as well as the risk of mortality. It is therefore within all our interests to put an end to smoking. By doing so we can have a considerable impact on TB.
At the historic UN General Assembly high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis in New York last year, Heads of State signed up to an ambitious Political Declaration with bold targets, including commitments to develop community-based health services that also address related health conditions such as chronic lung disease and tobacco use as part of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care of TB. Similarly, the Political Declaration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in 2018 also includes commitments to integrate responses to non-communicable diseases and communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and TB, especially in countries with the highest prevalence rates. Both tobacco control and efforts to end TB go beyond the health system and require strong multisectoral partnership. This is critical if we are to achieve universal health coverage and end TB. Action by, and within the health system is crucial and, TB stakeholders can make a real difference by ensuring adoption and scale-up of recommended action on TB and Tobacco Control, be it through influencing policy on tobacco control, ensuring health care in a safe, smoke-free environment and by integrating smoking cessation to ensure better TB treatment outcomes and a more holistic, patient-centred approach. Let’s work on this together.
Don’t let tobacco and TB take your breath or life away!
#NoTobacco #EndTB
Best regards
Dr Tereza Kasaeva
Director, Global TB Programme
World Health Organization