Can smoking make you more prone to Covid-19 infection? Check what experts say!

Experts believe that smoking makes you more vulnerable to coronavirus infection

Smoking is any day a bad habit but because coronavirus is related to the lungs, it is very important for all the people who smoke, to know if they are more vulnerable to smoking or not.

Lungs and respiratory tract in smokers are already compromised to various extents, they are more prone to get severely infected by SARS CoV-2, which primarily attacks the respiratory systems in humans including the lungs. In severe cases, it leads to symptoms such as difficulty in breathing. Experts believe that COVID-19 is equally dangerous to chain smokers and occasional smokers.

They say that even when a person is smoking one or two cigarettes after a gap of certain days, he/she is exposing his/her respiratory system to something that is damaging it.

Professor at Christian Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Dr Vikas Loomba said that even though Covid-19 is a new disease and it is being studied, but coronavirus family has a history of attacking respiratory functioning in humans.

Read more: What legal action can be taken if you don’t follow the coronavirus lockdown?

A program, Quit, run by Cancer Council Victoria with the help of the Victorian Department of Health in Australia, says, that if a person who was a smoker has quit smoking a few days back is likely to be at lower risk of severe complications if he/she gets infected. But if there is a continued smoker, he/she is more vulnerable. It is established that quitting smoking improves one’s lung function within a few months. The best thing at the time of epidemic is to quit smoking.

World Health Organization acknowledges that it is normal to feel stressed, confused, scared, sad or angry during the crisis. But, they also advise not to use alcohol, smoking, banned drugs to deal with your emotion.  If you can’t control your emotions get professional help from a counsellor or a health worker.

The experts say that until this pandemic keeps spreading, even one cigarette a day is dangerous.  They believe that there could not be a better time to quit smoking completely than the present.

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