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  • Title: [Health consequences of the tobacco epidemic in West African French-speaking countries and current tobacco control].
    Author: da Costa e Silva VL.
    Journal: Promot Educ; 2005; Suppl 4():7-12, 54. PubMed ID: 16190255.
    Abstract:
    The burden of disease due to tobacco for each country will depend on the prevalence of tobacco use and the duration of the epidemic. Given that the tobacco epidemic in West African Francophone countries is relatively recent, the burden of disease due to tobacco use is currently low. However, tobacco related burden of disease in Francophone West African countries is increasing as the number of smokers continues to increase and the population has been smoking for a longer period of time. If the current trends continue, West African countries will be suffering the massive consequences of tobacco use in two or three decades. Apart from the classical health consequences of tobacco consumption such as certain types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, there are some conditions of special importance in low income African countries such as the increased risk of tuberculosis infection and mortality amongst smokers, low birth weight for babies of smoking mothers, and tobacco consumption associated malnutrition especially amongst women. Furthermore, developing countries, with inadequate resources and other important health issues, cannot afford the costs of the chronic degenerating conditions caused by tobacco use, as these are very expensive to treat. Tobacco control in Francophone African countries is still deficient Human and financial resources which are often scarce in West African countries are dedicated to other health issues since tobacco is normally not amongst the public health priorities. Legislation in Francophone African countries is limited and not adequately enforced. A major reason for governments' inaction on tobacco is their fear of creating unemployment and loss of revenue from tobacco taxes. This fear is derived mainly from the arguments of the tobacco industry. Apart from lobbying governments, the tobacco industry uses all kinds of strategies to market their products in these countries and faces practically no barriers to their business in these countries. It is essential that Francophone African countries take immediate action and develop and implement comprehensive multisectoral tobacco control programmes. These programmes must be integrated into the existing public health programmes and make use of existing infrastructure and resources in order to stop the tobacco epidemic from expanding. In February 2005, the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) entered into force. Most Francophone African countries have signed the treaty thus expressing their intention to become Parties in the future. WHO urges these countries to become Parties as soon as possible and to implement the WHO FCTC provisions in order to control the tobacco epidemic. WHO in turn will provide guidelines and assistance for the process of becoming Parties to the treaty and implementing tobacco control measures outlined therein.
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