“Quitting Tobacco Must Be The Choice Of The Patient”

The World No Tobacco day focuses on Covid-19 and the time to quit smoking by smokers. How important is such a theme at this moment? 
Tobacco smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the health of smokers in general. Smoking can harm the tissue of the lungs, impeding their ability to function properly, and can increase the risk for conditions such as emphysema, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and respiratory infections such as Covid-19. Quitting tobacco smoking will be of a great benefit for such patients so that they can avoid getting severe forms of Covid-19 disease, which could lead to death.
What has been the situation of smokers in Cameroon with the advent of the Coronavirus?
We do not yet have data about the specific spread of Covid-19 in Cameroonian amongst tobacco smokers. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), there are no reviewed studies that have evaluated the risk of Covid-19 associated with smoking. However, a patient who had Covid-19 could have more complications if he/she previously had another tobacco related lung disease such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Depending on specific case, we continue the treatment of the specific disease. When it comes to Covid-19 treatment, they had the same treatment as non-smokers.
How can a smoker permanently quite smoking and what can they replace cigarettes with?
Quitting tobacco must be the choice of the patient. The process is long. To succeed, the patient has to be accompanied by health care professionals such as tobaccologists (pulmonologists), psychologists amongst others. To help the patient, there are Nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) which reduce withdrawal feelings by giving the person a small...