Study Shows Smoking to Cause up to 40 Million TB Deaths by 2050
Lung damage caused by smoking could cause an additional 18 million cases of tuberculosis and 40 million extra deaths from TB by 2050, according to a study published on Tuesday in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
The estimates derive from a mathematic model of smoking trends and smoking's impact on TB risk.
Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia will see the biggest rise in smoking-linked TB, the study says.
"Aggressively lowering the prevalence of tobacco smoking could reduce smoking-attributable deaths from tuberculosis by 27 million by 2050," according to the paper, headed by Sanjay Basu of the University of California at San Francisco.
Source: Agence France Presse
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