Extending a Step Further: Offering Tobacco Cessation Counselling to Contacts ofTuberculosis Patients

The global adult tobacco survey conducted in India suggests that 35% of adults use some or the other form of tobacco out of which 9% use it in smoking form [1]. While the youth tobacco survey among adolescents in 13-15 years of age also showed tobacco usage at a high rate of around 15% with around 4% using it in smoking form [2]. This suggests that the habit of tobacco usage is picked up early in life right from the school age. The tuberculosis tobacco nexus suggests that we can expect higher rate of tobacco usage among tuberculosis patients. A study from southern India shows that 94% tuberculosis patients were ever smokers and 71% current smokers at the time of study [3].