Few tobacco users get the help they need to quit

Many tobacco users want to quit to save their own lives and to protect the health of their families, but are unable to because of their addiction to nicotine. The vast majority of countries do not help tobacco users who want to quit. Currently, only nine of 173 Member State respondents offer the highest assessed level of support, which includes a full range of treatment and at least partial financial subsidies. These countries account for a mere 5% of the world’s population – meaning that the remaining 95% do not have access to treatment for tobacco dependence.

There is a wide range of effective cessation services, including brief routine advice from health-care workers, quit lines, and medications made available through retail stores if not provided directly by either health-care or public health programmes. Currently, 22 countries offer tobacco users no help at all in the form of basic services such as counselling or pharmacotherapy. It is impossible for people to obtain nicotine replacement therapy at all in 39 countries, even if they have the means to pay for it themselves. Quit lines are fairly inexpensive and within the means of many countries, yet only 44 countries, covering less than two fifths of the world’s population, provide them.