Covid-19: Opportunity for Tanzania to revisit tobacco control policies
Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum (TTCF) says lessons drawn from the Covid-19 pandemic should inform Tanzania to act on a tobacco control law that conforms to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).
The TTCF Executive Director Ms Lutgard Kagaruki says having a tougher anti-tobacco law would help protect non-smokers from tobacco smoke and assist smokers to quit.
Ms Kagaruki’s remarks have come against a backdrop of the WHO’s revelation that smokers are at an increased risk of more severe Covid-19 compared to non-smokers.
“Smokers may also already have lung disease or reduced lung capacity which would greatly increase risk of serious illness,” the WHO said recently in a statement that has been further emphasised by the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD).
In Tanzania, Ms Kagaruki, an award-winning activist who has led the anti-tobacco crusade for decades, says the severity of Covid-19 may take a bigger toll on smokers, citing evidence from studies which show that smoking is known to weaken the immune system, making the body less able to respond effectively to infections.
She refers to a study of more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2020 which found that smokers - both past and present - fared poorly, with smokers comprising more than 25 per cent of those that needed mechanical ventilation, admission to an intensive care unit, or who died.
She tells The Citizen that Tanzania’s best option now is to re-think is policy on smoking, picking from where efforts had reached for years and before the Covid-19 pandemic set in.
“Since FCTC ratification[more than 10 years] efforts have been made by different stakeholders in collaboration with Ministry of Health to have a new law enacted,’’ she explains.
“Unbelievably, to-datethe bill is yet to be tabled in parliament. Within East Africa including Zanzibar and, indeed, among most African countries and globally, Tanzania remains the only country without a FCTC compliant tobacco control law,’’ she says.
She urges, “It is time now for Tanzania to enact such a law, to protect the public against tobacco-related hazards, particularly severe COVID-19.”
“While the act of smoking means that fingers [and possibly contaminated cigarettes] are in contact with lips, smoking products such as water pipes often involve the sharing of mouthpieces and hoses, which could facilitate the transmission of Covid-19 in communal and social settings.,’’ says Ms Kagaruki.
She believes that a tobacco control law that is in line with the WHO FCTC will play a major role in the fight against severe COVID-19.In the era of Covid-19, countries, including Tanzania have been further urged to take stock of tobacco-related lessons to help protect their citizens’ health and livelihoods.
According to the African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) Mr Leonce Sessou, multinationals are busy cashing in on the Covid-19 crisis to engage in activities that either help to clean their image, or challenge governments for restricting or completely banning the sale of tobacco products to reduce the effects of the disease.
Mr Sessou says, “This practice further complicates things for Africa, which added to the COVID-19 pandemic, is dealing with other ills like malaria, HIV, non-communicable diseases and poverty.”
“It is absolutely vital for smokers to quit, the tobacco multinationals have been involved in a series of initiatives to get governments to let tobacco shops run as essential services, and tobacco products sell as essential goods,’’ he reveals.
Adding: “The tobacco industry does this despite the numerous pieces of evidence that tobacco products expose consumers to grave COVID-19 consequences should they get infected.”
