Double the risk of tobacco bacterial infections

Smoking cessation would generally divide by two the risk of bacterial infections, said Professor Bertrand Dautzenberg, pulmonologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière (Paris), at the 8th Congress of the Society of Pneumology language French held in Nice.
Tobacco lowers the body's defenses by mechanisms still poorly understood, explained the specialist, and this creates a risk of infection is far from negligible, but still underestimated due to the lesser gravity of its consequences compared with other tobacco-related diseases.

This risk is not limited to respiratory infections, but covers both seasonal infections, bronchitis and bacterial pneumonia, than specific infections such as tuberculosis and legionella.

Thus, for an adult, a study showed that smoking triples the risk of pneumonia in a consumer package and day and increases in no small way in light smokers. The risk of developing a severe form of pneumococcal pneumonia is quadrupled for smokers.

More generally, the risk of lung disease due to smoking is more than 50%. Exposure to cigarette smoke also confers a risk, estimated at 17%. Smoking cessation is beneficial in this case quickly, as in the former smoker, the risk quickly becomes equal to that of non-smokers.

Smoking also multiplied by 3 or 4 the risk of developing Legionnaires' disease, said Dr. Dautzenberg, recommending smoking cessation as the primary preventive measure of this type of pneumonia.

In patients with obstructive pulmonary disease, bacterial colonization is higher in smokers, raising the risk of infection, therefore increases the respiratory decompensation.

Pulmonary tuberculosis infections is also part of the development of which is promoted by smoking, multiplying it by two and a half its impact.

Stop smoking before a scheduled operation can be paid, by dividing by nearly six the risk of wound infection, the doctor said.

It is not enough to stop smoking, we also live in an environment free from tobacco smoke. Several studies have calculated that the relative risk of seasonal infection in children was 1.57 (significant risk from 1) when one of the parents was a smoker, it was 1.72 if it were the mother and 1.29 if it was another family member. Passive smoking also increases the risk of recurrent ear infections by nearly 50% and increases that of bacterial meningitis by 2.5 to 7.5 depending on the study.