As Nigeria join the world community to mark the World No Tobacco Day, scientists have warned about the link between tobacco and resistant germs which poses danger to the body’s immune system. That was the findings of a recent literature review published in ‘Tobacco Induced Diseases’.
According to researchers, although, the mouth is one of the dirtiest parts of the body, home to millions of germs, “puffing cigarettes can increase the likelihood that certain bacteria like Porphyromonas gingivalis will not only set up camp but build a fortified city in the mouth and fight against the immune system”.
In the review, the researcher in the School of Dentistry’s University of Louisville, Kentucky in the United States (U.S), David A. Scott, Ph.D., explored how cigarettes lead to colonisation of bacteria in the body. Attention to Scott’s work came as the World Health Organisation (WHO) observed the World No Tobacco Day yesterday, May 31 to encourage a global 24-hour abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption.
Available data shows that six million worldwide deaths are linked to the negative health effects of tobacco use annually. According to a report in the sciencedaily.com, Scott and his research team identified how tobacco smoke, composed of thousands of chemical components, is an environmental stressor and promotes bacteria colonisation and immune invasion.
Scott revealed that cigarette smoke and its components also promote biofilm formation by several other pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biofilms are composed of numerous microbial communities often made up of complex, interacting and co-existing multispecies structures. Bacteria can form biofilms on most surfaces including teeth, heart valves and the respiratory tract
