ILOILO City – Tobacco use poses significant danger to health, according to the Department of Health (DOH) in Region 6. It encourages smokers to “commit to quit”.
Today, incidentally, is World No Tobacco Day.
According to John Richard Lapascua, senior health program officer of DOH-6, most of the health concerns that compelled Western Visayans to seek medical help in 2019 were related to tobacco use.
These were acute respiratory infection (43,752 cases), hypertension (29,331), pneumonia (17,023), all forms of tuberculosis (9,172), acute lower respiratory tract infection (8,125), bronchitis (7,311), and influenza (2,824).
Data from the same year also showed that eight of the 10 main causes of mortality were tobacco use-related: pneumonia (8,909), hypertensive cardiovascular diseases / heart diseases (8,806), cerebrovascular accident / diseases of the vascular system (4,087), neoplasm (3,874), diseases of the respiratory system (2,233), renal diseases (2,203), diabetes mellitus (1,655), and tuberculosis (1,462).
To avoid these, Lapascua encouraged tobacco users to quit now.
“Commit to quit. We all know ang pagpanigarilyo wala gid sang benefit nga mahatag sa isa ka tawo other than diseases and death,” said Lapascua.
Finding it hard to quit?
Seek assistance from your nearest Rural Health Unit (RHU) or Barangay Health Workers, said Lapascua.
Every RHU has a trained staff on tobacco cessation services.
“Ma-undergo anay screening and then kon may result right after, mabal-an ta na kon ano nga intervention ang bagay,” Lapascua said.
He continued: “May ara man counseling kinahanglan ya… or kinahanglan ya i-refer sa pulmonologist kay may ara na sia sakit because of smoking, or kinahanglan niya sang nicotine replacement therapy.”/PN
