NEW DELHI:
Smokers are more likely to develop severe disease with COVID-19 than non-smokers, warns a study conducted by public health experts of the Geneva-headquartered World Health Organisation (WHO).
“COVID-19 is an infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs. Smoking impairs lung function making it harder for the body to fight off corona virus and other diseases. Tobacco is also a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes which put people with these conditions at higher risk for developing severe illness when affected by COVID-19. Available research suggests that smokers are at higher risk of developing severe disease and death,” the WHO said in a statement.
The statement also said the organisation is regularly working on new research, including those that review the connection between tobacco and nicotine use and COVID-19. It urged all the stakeholders, including researchers, scientists, and the media to be cautious about amplifying unproven claims that tobacco or nicotine could reduce the risk of COVID-19. There is insufficient information to establish any relation between tobacco or nicotine in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.
As against the non-authenticated and non-approved information derived from different research studies, the global health body stressed the importance of ethically approved, high-quality and systematic research that will contribute to advancing individual and public health, emphasizing that promotion of unproven interventions could harm health.
Smokers, with the help of WHO-recommended measures such as toll-free quit lines, mobile text-messaging programmes and nicotine replacement therapies, can take immediate steps to quit smoking.
Even if without COVID-19, tobacco kills more than eight million people globally every year. More than seven million of these deaths are from direct tobacco use and around 1.2 million are due to non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
