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Smokers with TB double their chances of succumbing to disease
New Delhi, Aug 20: Smokers who suffer from tuberculosis double their chances of dying from the disease as compared to non-smokers, a study has said.
New Delhi, Aug 20: Smokers who suffer from
tuberculosis double their chances of dying from the disease as
compared to non-smokers, a study has said.
Scientists from the Epidemiological Research Centre in Chennai working in collaboration with the University of Oxford have calculated that about half the male tuberculosis deaths in India occur due to smoking.
The team compared 43,000 men who had died from various diseases in the late 1990s with the health habits of more that 35,000 living men. They found that half of these deaths were caused by smoking.
More than 4,000 of the deaths were from TB but if there had been no smoking involved, the researchers calculated that only 2,000 of these deaths would have happened, according to the study published in the science journal `Lancet'.
"Almost 200,000 people a year in India die of TB because they smoked and half of these are still only in their 30s, 40s or early 50s when they die," Dr Vendhan Gajalakshmi from the research centre, who led the study, said.
"The study indicates that in rural India about 12 per cent of smokers die but only 3 per cent of non-smokers die prematurely from TB," Richard Peto from the Oxford University, another tea member, said.
Smoking kills people by damaging the lung's defence against chronic TB infection. TB could lie dormant in the lungs for a long duration but smoking encourages an active and often fatal infection, the study aimed at analysing the rate of mortality among male tuberculosis patients between 25 and 69 years, said.
Bureau Report
Scientists from the Epidemiological Research Centre in Chennai working in collaboration with the University of Oxford have calculated that about half the male tuberculosis deaths in India occur due to smoking.
The team compared 43,000 men who had died from various diseases in the late 1990s with the health habits of more that 35,000 living men. They found that half of these deaths were caused by smoking.
More than 4,000 of the deaths were from TB but if there had been no smoking involved, the researchers calculated that only 2,000 of these deaths would have happened, according to the study published in the science journal `Lancet'.
"Almost 200,000 people a year in India die of TB because they smoked and half of these are still only in their 30s, 40s or early 50s when they die," Dr Vendhan Gajalakshmi from the research centre, who led the study, said.
"The study indicates that in rural India about 12 per cent of smokers die but only 3 per cent of non-smokers die prematurely from TB," Richard Peto from the Oxford University, another tea member, said.
Smoking kills people by damaging the lung's defence against chronic TB infection. TB could lie dormant in the lungs for a long duration but smoking encourages an active and often fatal infection, the study aimed at analysing the rate of mortality among male tuberculosis patients between 25 and 69 years, said.
Bureau Report