| Smokers at higher risk for infectionsPosted 3-13-2000By Mary Ann HellinghausenAtlanta. People who smoke cigarettes or breathe secondhand smoke are at a higher risk for contracting pneumonia, a bloodstream infection, or meningitis, according to a study by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The study, published in the March 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the risk of infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, the virus that causes pneumonia, was four times higher for cigarette smokers and two-and-a-half times higher for those exposed to secondhand smoke.”This study documents yet another example of an adverse health event linked to active and passive smoking,’’ said Michael Eriksen, MD, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “Reducing the incidence of pneumococcal disease is yet another reason to continue to support public health programs to reduce smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.”Researchers worked with microbiology labs in Atlanta, Baltimore, and Toronto to identify all cases of invasive pneumococcal infection in adults ages 18 to 64 and selected a sample of patients for further study. Through telephone interviews with those patients and randomly selected healthy residents of the same age, the researchers discovered cigarette smoking was the strongest risk factor for pneumococcal infection in adults with normal immune systems.Such infections account for as many as 500,000 cases of pneumonia, more than 50,000 bloodstream infections, and 3,000 cases of meningitis each year in the United States, according to the CDC.If the number of American smokers was reduced by 10 percent, 4,000 severe pneumococcal infections could be prevented, the survey showed.The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is reviewing the data to determine whether cigarette smokers should be routinely vaccinated against pneumococcal infection. |
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