Damascus-Sana
More than a billion people globally smoke and more than eight million people die every year because of it, or as a result of negative exposure to smoking. Tobacco also kills a person’s life every four seconds, according to WHO statistics.
The Director of the Anti-Smoking Program at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Abeer Obaid, said in a statement to Sanaa that the World No Tobacco Day, which falls on May 31 each year, is an occasion to remind the dangers of this on the lives of people of different age groups, pointing out that with the spread of Corona virus in different Countries of the world are increasing the demand to refrain from it because it weakens the respiratory system, which increases the possibility of infection with the virus.
On the work of the anti-smoking program, which returned to its awareness activities in 2017 after stopping during the years of the terrorist war on Syria, Dr. Obaid indicated that smoking cessation clinics had been activated in health centers to provide advice to smokers to help them quit while dispensing medicines to them in case of need.
Dr. Obaid pointed out that during the past two years, school students in the basic education stage went to the second cycle from the age of 13 to 15 years through the "smoke-free schools" initiative launched by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Ministry of Education in order to shed light on the damages of the smoking scourge.
Dr. Obaid revealed that he is currently preparing to launch a similar initiative targeting public and private university students in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and the Student Union, as well as launching the “Stay Home without Smoking” initiative in cooperation with the local community. The local celebration of the World Day to Prevent Smoking will be titled “Together to protect young people from The scourge of smoking.
Dr. Obaid pointed out that the anti-smoking program team in the response to the Corona pandemic prepared a set of awareness brochures on the dangers of smoking, whether cigarettes or hookah distributed to health center auditors and published a set of warning and awareness messages about the dangers of smoking and presented its relationship with the Corona virus through the Ministry’s Facebook page on Facebook And the media.
Dr. Obaid stressed the importance of strict application of legislative decree No. 62 of 2009 that prohibits smoking in public places, noting that stopping smoking cigarettes and nargile reduces infection rates with many respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that are closely related to the most serious symptoms of Covid 19 And with death as the hookah smoking is linked
With an increased risk of transmission of infectious agents, including respiratory viruses, hepatitis C viruses and tuberculosis bacilli, it stimulates transmission of the new corona virus in populations between hookah smokers.
Dr. Obaid pointed out that studies showed the potential for corona virus in smokers to reach death 14 times compared to non-smokers.
On the relationship of smoking to Covid 19 disease and its dangers to new coronavirus carriers, the head of the Syrian Association of Thoracic Medicine Dr. Lubna Hawija confirmed that smoking poses a great danger due to the many damage and diseases it causes away from the newly discovered Covid 19 disease, which annually records about 8 million deaths in the world Due to cardiovascular and pulmonary lesions, including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, respiratory failure, and smoking-induced tumors.
Dr. Hawija pointed out that a large number of studies so far have proven that if a smoker was infected with the Corona virus and reached the intensive care stage, his death rate would be higher, and that the percentage of smokers with corona who were placed on artificial respirators was greater compared to non-smokers.
Dr. Hawija saw that smoking is a burden for people with the Corona virus because smoking causes a host of damages. Most studies have shown that 80 percent of Corona patients are not asymptomatic and 20 percent enter hospital. 5 percent of them need intensive care because they have chronic diseases including stress, diabetes, heart and tumors of various kinds. Its forms include diseases and damages following smoking, whether cigarette or hookah, such as lung tumors, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis, which confirms that smoking is a risk factor for Covid patients 19.
Dr. Hawijah considered that the World Day to stop smoking is an opportunity to remind smokers of its dangers and renew the call to stop it, indicating at the same time that this is not an easy decision, but it is not impossible according to the person’s will and awareness that smoking in large part is an unhealthy habit and has risks for the person in terms of diseases of the heart system Circulation, breathing, and tumor incidence in general, not lung tumors only, along with its risks for people surrounding the smoker, especially child development and fetal deformity in a pregnant mother.
Tomorrow, the nations of the world salute the World No Tobacco Day under the title "Unveil the Secret ... Expose Tobacco" to renew the call for effective policies to reduce its consumption and contribute to protecting current and future generations from its devastating health consequences not only at the health level but also social, environmental and economic.
Enas Svan