Just like other parts of the body, the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke can damage the lungs and lead to tuberculosis (TB).
This bacterial infection affected 40 million people worldwide last year, including women and children.
While there are global policies in place to help reduce the spread of TB, it doesn’t mean that active smokers and those exposed to secondhand smoke are in the clear.
In fact, they’re the most vulnerable to contracting it.
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Keep reading to find out more about how smoking and TB are linked, and how smoking wear out the immune system, making it easier for infections to take hold.
Exploring the Link Between Tuberculosis and Smoking
Aside from contracting TB, smoking can make the illness more severe and hinder effective treatment.
If your lungs are weakened from smoking, you’re at a higher risk of getting infected by the bacteria called ‘mycobacterium tuberculosis’.
You definitely want to avoid this, as it typically attacks the lungs but can also spread to the spine and brain once it becomes active.
How Smoking Weakens the Respiratory Immune Defense
When you smoke, you’re letting harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, cadmium, and arsenic break down your lungs’ natural defences and weaken your immune system.
This basically means your lungs can’t clean the air you breathe as effectively.
Once your lungs are damaged, infections can take over, becoming too much for your immune system to deal with.
Cigarette smoke affects how your immune system responds, and if TB bacteria get in, they can spread even further when your immune system is overwhelmed.
How TB Spreads in the Air
Does TB bacteria spread through cigarette smoke? No, it doesn’t, but cigarette smoke plays a role in increasing its infectiousness.
Most people may have TB infection without feeling any symptoms associated with it. Latent TB infections, once treated or overcome by your immune system, will go away on their own.
However, active TB infections require much more critical medical attention, and an infected person can transmit it by simply talking, sneezing, coughing or singing.
So, if your GP confirms you have an active TB infection, it’s best to stop smoking and stay in an isolated environment to avoid infecting others and go through a critical recovery process to improve your condition.
Factors Influencing the Transmission of Tuberculosis
As we’ve mentioned, only active TB infections can transmit the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis infections. There are several factors that could increase the risk of spreading TB infections in the air even further:
- Close Contact with an Infected Person: Being in the same space with anyone who has TB infection is enough to raise suspicions of having spread TB to others in the same space – these include open-air spaces.
- Duration of Exposure: According to data, anyone exposed to someone with a TB infection for an hour has the smallest chance of getting infected. However, it’s likely that someone exposed for more than 250 hours may have latent to active TB infection.
- Infectiousness of the Source Case: TB infectiousness varies from case-to-case. In some cases, anyone infected with TB has spread it to almost all of their contacts while in other cases it’s spread to none. On average, about 20-30% of people exposed to the infection get infected.
- Ventilation and Airflow: A TB infection is containable if the infected patient stays in an isolated area. However, a poorly ventilated space (think of a room with small windows or no air-purifying systems) can spread the infection beyond the containment space.
- Immunity Level: The spread of TB also depends on a person’s immunity level. Anyone with a high immunity level exposed to a TB-infected person may experience few to zero symptoms of TB. An active smoker with compromised immunity and comorbidities may progress from latent to active infections fast.
- Malnutrition: Our bodies need enough nutrition to remain in good shape and have a fully-functional immune system. Poor nutrition, accompanied by comorbidities or substance addiction increases the risk of contracting active infections.
- Other Respiratory Conditions: Lastly, anyone with prior lung conditions are at a higher risk of affliction. If you’ve had COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and other lung problems in the past, there’s a higher risk you may develop active infections faster.
- Secondhand Smoke: The dangers of secondhand smoke cannot be underestimated. It can cause the same dangers as smoking cigarettes to non-smokers and compromise their bodies enough for TB bacteria to infect them.
More Reasons to Stop Smoking Today
Smoking and tuberculosis are greatly correlated, and weakening and damaging your lungs with the chemicals in cigarette smoke increases the risk of contracting this highly infectious disease.
By stopping smoking, you give yourself and anyone around you the best chance of never contracting the disease. Quitting the ciggies will also give you a fuller, disease-free, and healthier life overall.
We understand that quitting smoking can be extremely challenging, but we can help.
Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around!
If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to friendly Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.
Link Reference:
- https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/373828/9789240083851-eng.pdf?sequence=1
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4070106/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32044987/