New research into TB and tobacco

Posted on 19 October 2015

Innovative research will assess how the stress placed on healthcare systems around the world, by tobacco and TB, can be reduced. In a new, four-year project funded by the European Commission, researchers from the Department of Health Sciences will look at ways in which interventions to stop smoking can be integrated into TB control programmes.

Dr Kamran Siddiqi, a senior lecturer in public health from the Department of Health Sciences and the Hull York Medical School, has secured funding totalling over £2 million from the European Commission Horizon 2020 for a four-year project called “Tobacco cessation within TB programmes: A ‘real world’ solution for countries with dual burden of disease”.

The project will look at effective ways of integrating inexpensive stop smoking strategies which are proven to work, into TB control programmes with the ultimate goal of improving the health and long-term outcomes of those patients suffering from TB and decreasing the number of people who suffer from tobacco-related diseases.

The project consists of six intervention packages to be delivered in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan – all countries which have high incidences of both tobacco use and TB cases. The hope of the project is that by studying the ‘real world’ influences on the implementation and success of tobacco cessation the investigators will be able to translate study findings into benefits for patients.

Kamran said: "TB patients who use tobacco are at risk of death. We are pleased to be able to investigate treatments that can help these patients quit tobacco use before it is too late. This is an extremely important study which we hope can be used to help people worldwide."

The project will be delivered via a consortium of eight other organisations including ARK Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Health Research and Social Development Forum, Kathmandu, Nepal; National TB Programme, Islamabad, Pakistan; The Initiative, Islamabad, Pakistan; Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany; University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; and General University Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic.

The consortium will be holding its first international meeting in York, 25 - 27 November 2015.

For more information on the study, please see: www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/public-health/projects/tobacco-cessation-within-tb-programmes.