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Comparative study of tuberculosis in smokers and non-smokers

Smoking and tuberculosis are two major public health issues at the global level, especially in emerging countries. Tobacco smoke alters the lung9s defense mechanisms against infections and increases the risk of infection with myco-bacterium tuberculosis. We conducted a comparative study between two groups of 70 patients with pulmonary or pleural tuberculosis (44 smokers versus 26 non-smokers). The mean age in the smoker group was 33 versus 41 in the non-smoker group, the symptomatology was nonspecific in both groups and was dominated by cough (50% versus 27%) and haemoptysis (18.5% vs. 12.5%), radiologically there were cavitary lesions in 37% of cases in the smoker group compared to 22.8% in the non-smoker group, a pleurisy of great abundance in 30% of cases in smokers compared to 18.5% of cases in the non-smokers group, the delayed diagnosis and healing time were greater in smokers, the confirmation of tuberculosis was bacteriological in 27 cases and histological in 17 in smokers (bacteriological in 14 patients in the non-smokers group), pulmonary and extra-pulmonary relapses as well as radiological sequelae were more frequent in the smoker group (28% vs. 09%, p From now on, stopping smoking has become a way of controlling the tuberculosis epidemic in emerging countries, and this fact should lead to an international mobilization around these two major public health issues.