Sharing Cigarette Smoking and COVID‑19 Outbreak in a Party Group

Smoking is an important health risk behavior that is an important problem in preventive medicine. In a recent report, Rajabi et al. noted that there was a significant difference in the quality of life related to health in smokers.[1] Smoking can contribute to several respiratory diseases such as lung cancer and emphysema. Nevertheless, smoking can also induce other problems that are little mentioned. Here, the authors report on an interesting COVID‑19 outbreak in a party group in Thailand. Basically, COVID‑19 is a new respiratory infection emerged from China.[2] The disease is transmittable from human to human. Similar to other respiratory infections, sharing of glass and eating utensil is a risk behavior that can lead to disease spreading. In the present scenario, an interesting behavior, sharing of same cigarette for smoking is observed. In this outbreak, there are 11 sick persons (5 males, 6 females, aged 25‑28 years old) who get COVID‑19 from a party. In this party, there is an infector coming from Hong Kong and spread disease to his friend. In that party, there are 15 persons attended. During the party, 11 persons including the first infector share a same cigarette for smoking. After the party, the first infector returned to Hong Kong. Four days after that party, 111 persons who attended the party developed illness and finally diagnosed for COVID‑19. From disease investigation, 4 persons in the party who did not share same cigarette smoking are negative for COVID‑19. This outbreak can highlight that sharing cigarette smoking is a risk for COVID‑19 transmission. This risk behavior is little mentioned but very important. This is the first report of a group of COVID‑19 infection relating to smoking. Adding to no sharing of drinking and eating, no sharing of smoking should be included in general recommendations for general people for COVID‑19 prevention and control.