Lung damage caused by smoking could cause an additional 18 million cases of tuberculosis and 40 million extra deaths from TB by 2050, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.

The estimates derive from a mathematic model of smoking trends and smoking’s impact on TB risk. Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia will see the biggest rise in smoking-linked TB, the study says.

“Aggressively lowering the prevalence of tobacco smoking could reduce smoking-attributable deaths from tuberculosis by 27 million by 2050,” according to the paper, headed by Sanjay Basu of the University of California at San Francisco.

Smoking tobacco is a TB risk factor. Studies state that a fifth of the world's population smokes and that most cigarettes are smoked in countries with high TB prevalence and where the tobacco industry has expanded its market.

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