WHO: “Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco” to help people quit smoking launched

On July 11, 2020, the World Health Organization launched “Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco”. The initiative is to help 1.3 billion global tobacco users to quit the habit of smoking.

Highlights

The initiative is to provide free access to people that need resources to quit tobacco such as nicotine replacement therapy. It will also provide free access to digital health workers for advice.

The initiative is led jointly by WHO and the Interagency Task Force on Non-communicable diseases. It is to be first launched in Jordan and then in coming months the initiative is to be rolled out globally.

Several pharmaceuticals and tech companies are to be added to the initiative.

Need

The United Nations Health body says that smoking kills 8 million people a year. It also says that non-smokers are more vulnerable to developing severe case of COVID-19 than the smokers. Therefore, it is essential to make right steps to reduce the smokers globally to aid COVID-19 containment.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2020