Despite strong scientific and community-based evidence to support tobacco and TB control, 1.1 million people died of TB in 2023 and over 8 million died of tobacco use in the same year. “Tobacco is an entirely preventable epidemic,” rightly said Dr Tara Singh Bam who is a force for change when it comes to stronger actions to prevent avoidable diseases and save lives in low- and middle-income countries.

TB too is preventable, and no one needs to die of it. We have the tools to find all TB, treat all and prevent all TB but the ground reality is that TB is neither preventable, not treatable for millions of people every year. In 2023, over 10.8 million people got infected with TB worldwide (and 1.1 million died of TB), said Dr Tara Singh Bam citing the recently released WHO Global TB Report 2024.

Dr Bam serves as Board Director of Asia Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT), Asia Pacific Director for Tobacco Control at Vital Strategies, and till very recently served as Asia Pacific Director of International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union). The Indonesian Ministry of Health had awarded Dr Bam in recognition of his nearly two decades of contribution to public health earlier this year.

Tobacco smoking increases the risk of developing TB and makes TB treatment less effective – and – heightens risk of many other deadly diseases too.

Extensive scientific research underlines tobacco smoking’s substantial role in TB, amplifying the risk of infection, death, treatment relapse, heightened clinical severity, and delays in both: diagnosis and treatment, said Dr Tara Singh Bam. He was speaking at ‘Meet the Expert’ special session at the World Conference on Lung Health 2024 that was recently held in Bali, Indonesia.

Delayed diagnosis and treatment also mean that the person with TB suffers more, has a higher risk of TB death, while the infection spreads to potentially more people – all of this is so avoidable.

WHO lists tobacco use among the top 5 risk factors for TB – almost one in six TB deaths occur........

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