Intensive Smoking-cessation Intervention Versus Smoking-cessation Advice in Smear-positive Patients With Pulmonary Tuberculosis

The aim of the study is to determine the impact of a package of smoking-cessation interventions on a composite measure of Tuberculosis (TB) treatment-related outcomes. Given the lack of objective clinical data/evidence about the impact of smoking-cessation on TB-related outcomes, yet subjective expert opinion that smoking cessation is highly likely to be beneficial particularly in patients with TB, this study proposes to determine the impact of an intensive package of smoking-cessation interventions aimed to promote smoking-cessation (counseling plus nicotine replacement therapy, NRT), on patient response to anti-tuberculosis therapy. This is to be compared with the structured counselling for smoking-cessation that is recommended to be routinely provided by health care workers to all patients who are smokers. If the results prove that such a smoking-cessation PI indeed improves outcomes in TB patients, such information would strongly motivate for the institution of more intensive smoking-cessation interventions in TB clinics than is currently being employed for TB patients