Tuberculosis is a global killer, claiming the lives of more than two million people annually and sickening millions more. Tobacco plays an enormous role in that calamity.
Smoking increases the risks of becoming infected with tuberculosis, of developing the active form of disease, and of dying from it. In other words, it increases the risk at each stage of the disease. Alarmingly, children and other non-smokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke share many of those risks.