Stub it out now: Smoking an added health risk for Covid-19

KUALA LUMPUR: Smokers are urged to quit the habit immediately, given the added health risks the habit presents for Covid-19 patients.

Cochrane Malaysia co-director Prof Dr Jacqueline Ho said the World Health Organisation had said that smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke was a specific risk for Covid-19.

"Smokers are not only putting themselves at increased risk but also those around them (their families), ” she said.

Early this month, Cochrane came up with effective, evidence-based options for greater success of quitting and for health professionals to assist them in the effort during the movement control order (MCO) period.

Titled "Covid-19: Effective options for quitting smoking during the pandemic," is based on data from China showing smokers were at greater risk of getting infected with Covid-19 and suffered more severely from it.

The methods focused on interventions that restrict face-to-face contact with health practitioners.

It includes nicotine replacement, telephone counselling, Internet and text messaging programmes as well as gradual quitting.

Cochrane is a not-for-profit global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health.

With collaborators from more than 130 countries, it produces independent systematic reviews which study all of the best available evidence on research done for informed decisions about health.

Universiti Malaya's Nicotine Addiction Research and Collaborating Centre head Dr Amer Siddiq Amer Nordin said the results were better when a combination of medicines and behavioural therapy were used.

"Don't do it alone. Evidence suggests that doing it together with your therapist may increase your chances of staying quit," he said, adding that group-based therapy worked just as well.

Those who wish to quit smoking can log in to jomquit.moh.gov.my or call 03-8883 4400 for more information.