“Ustad (Islamic religious teacher), are there any cigarettes in heaven?” asked a dying man. “Yes, of course, you can find anything you want in heaven. But, you must first go to hell to light up your cigarette,” the ustad answered calmly.

This story was shared by Imran Pambudi, head of the National Tuberculosis (TB) Control Program, during a recent webinar titled Yes, We Can End TB and Smoking, held to address Indonesia's two most challenging public health concerns: tuberculosis and tobacco use.

The webinar, attended by more than 1,000 participants from the Asia Pacific countries, was jointly organized by the Health Ministry, the Association of All Indonesian Health Offices (ADINKES), the Asia-Pacific Cities Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Health (The Union), among others.

“[The story] really reflects how smoking has become an addiction to millions of people in Indonesia,” said Pambudi.

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in 2021, calculated that there were 70.2 million people who used tobacco (smoking, smokeless or heated tobacco products), and that 65.5 percent of Indonesian men and 3.3 percent of women used tobacco.

Mukta Sharma, technical advisor at the World Health Organization (WHO) for Indonesia, lamented that smoking was the strongest risk factor for TB in Indonesia in addition to undernourishment, diabetes and HIV.

“Around 77.6 percent of TB cases in Indonesia are related to smoking,” Sharma said.

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