The effect of cytisine on smoking cessation in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

An article by Omara Dogar et al [1]. that was first published in Lancet Global Health in 2020 revealed that current evidence didn’t support the addition of cytisine to brief behavioural support for the treatment of tobacco dependence in patients with tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is one of the most common chronic infectious diseases in the world. An estimated 10 million people suffering from tuberculosis and around 7.1 million new TB cases worldwide were officially notified to national authorities in 2019. Geographically, the majority of TB cases in 2019 were concentrated in Southeast Asia (44%), Africa (25%), the Western Pacific (18%), while the Eastern Mediterranean (8.2%), the Americas (2.9%) and Europe (2.5%) accounted for a smaller proportion. In 2017, about 85% of tuberculosis deaths occurred in Africa and southeast Asia where the prevalence of smoking is high [2]. In 2019, the number of cases of tuberculosis in China was about 775,764, and the death toll was about 2,990. Smoking has gradually become one of the important causes of death from tuberculosis [3]. Smoking seriously affects human health, especially those patients with tuberculosis. The smoke produced by smok-