Smoking increases the risk of tuberculosis incidence by 2 times

Approximately 40 million smokers can die from tuberculosis by 2050. According to the British Medical Journal, the risk of tuberculosis in people who have nicotine dependence is two times higher than those who do not smoke.

To date, most cases of tuberculosis have been reported in Africa and South-East Asia.

Representatives of charitable organizations said that the world's attempts to overcome tuberculosis are constantly hampered by the "aggressive promotion" of the tobacco industry.

Responsible for tuberculosis, MD, John Moore-Gillon, said that, despite the fact that twenty years ago, WHO declared tuberculosis to be one of the most important problems of mankind, the number of tuberculosis patients only increased and smoking doubled the risk of contracting this disease.

WHO data for 2010 show that one-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis. Every year, 9 million people become infected with tuberculosis. Many people are completely cured of tuberculosis, but 1.7 million a year die from this disease.

According to official statistics, during 2010, about 100 people became ill with 100 thousand people in Ukraine.

Every hour in Ukraine 4 new cases of tuberculosis are registered, and every hour one person dies from this disease. Annually in Ukraine up to 40 thousand tuberculosis patients are registered, and 10 thousand die. To date, about 500 thousand people are on dispensary accounting for tuberculosis, of which 90 thousand - with an open form.

The highest rates of tuberculosis incidence are registered in the south of Ukraine - Kherson, Mykolayiv, Zaporizhzhya and Odessa regions.

Let us recall the recent studies of the harm of smoking conducted by scientists:

• Smoking worsens memory
• Smoking increases the risk of developing bladder cancer fourfold
• Smoking on an empty stomach increases the risk of developing cancer threefold

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