%0 Journal Article
%T Tobacco use increases susceptibility to bacterial infection
%A Juhi Bagaitkar
%A Donald R Demuth
%A David A Scott
%J Tobacco Induced Diseases
%D 2008
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1617-9625-4-12
%X It is well established that smokers are more susceptible than non-smokers to a plethora of chronic diseases and conditions that include stroke, vascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, multiple cancers, periodontal diseases, hypertension, impotence and osteoporosis. However, smokers are also significantly more susceptible to multiple bacterial infections than are non-smokers. Such infections can be life-threatening and both active smokers as well as those exposed to secondhand smoke toxins are at increased risk. This important relationship between smoking and ill-health may not be universally appreciated. Therefore, we set out to review and summarize the evidence associating tobacco smoke exposure with bacterial infections and to introduce interactions between tobacco smoke, bacteria, and the immune system that may help explain the increased susceptibility to infectious disease in smokers.Adult smokers are at increased risk of respiratory infection by several bacterial pathogens, including Streptococcus pneumonia, Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae and Legionella pneumophila [1-5]. Brook and Gober reported that the nasopharyngeal microflora of smokers contains fewer normal bacteria (such as ¦Á-hemolytic and nonhemolytic streptococci, and Prevotella and Peptostreptococcus species) that can interfere with colonization by selected pathogens (S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae (non-type b), Moraxella catarrhalis, and Streptococcus pyogenes) and that the nasopharyngeal microflora also contains more potential pathogens compared with those of nonsmokers[6]. Such increased carriage of potentially pathogenic species of bacteria in both adults and children was hypothesized [6] to possibly be due to enhanced bacterial binding to the epithelial cells of smokers [7] and the low number of ¦Á-hemolytic streptococci with inhibitory activity against S. pyogenes in the oral cavities of smokers [6,8]. More recently, the same group followed a small number of quitte
%U http://www.tobaccoinduceddiseases.com/content/4/1/12