The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, during the week said tobacco kills half of its users every year and about 1.2 million non-smokers die from exposure to tobacco smoke.
Moeti stated this in her message to the international community to commemorate the 2021 ‘World No Tobacco Day’.
She said tobacco harms nearly every organ in the human body adding that smoking one cigarette a day can seriously harm a person’s health.
She stated further that tobacco can lead to lung, mouth, throat, oesophagus, stomach, bowel and other cancers and it increases the risk of chest and lung infections, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other conditions.
She said: “The theme this year is “Commit to quit” because the choice to stop tobacco use is in our hands. Millions of people have been motivated to quit tobacco during the COVID-19 pandemic because of evidence showing tobacco smoking impairs lung function, making it harder for the body to fight off coronavirus and other diseases.
“Of the 1.3 billion tobacco users globally, 60% have expressed the desire to quit but only 30% have access to the tools to do so successfully. Digital solutions can help to fill this gap and so at WHO we have introduced “Florence” a digital health worker who gives brief advice on how to quit and links people with the tools and solutions that can help.
“More than 75 million people in the African Region use some form of tobacco. This burden is likely to increase as consumer purchasing power improves coupled with intensive efforts by the tobacco industry to expand the African market. Public health advocates should therefore actively pursue counter-marketing campaigns that highlight the many risks of tobacco use.
“As WHO, we are supporting countries to scale-up programmes to help people quit tobacco, especially at the primary health care and community levels. So far, support to quit is available in primary health care facilities in 11 countries and in Angola, Botswana and Zambia, these services are offered at no cost to consumers.
“National toll-free lines where tobacco users can call and get advice are available in six countries. Nicotine replacement therapy is sold in pharmacies in 19 countries with governments fully covering the costs in Eswatini, Mauritius and Seychelles.
“Nicotine replacement therapy is included in the essential medicines list in Algeria, Ethiopia and South Africa. Burkina Faso is implementing “TobaccoCessation,” a mobile text messaging-based solution,” she stated.
Moeti added that, the promising progress now needs to be expanded to more countries in the WHO African Region. Governments and communities should also be alert to industry tactics to attract new users and keep people using tobacco, even when they are trying to quit.
