Strengthening national tobacco cessation and treatment systems

On 17-21 October 2016 policy-makers from 12 newly independent states (NIS) participated in a tobacco cessation workshop in Moscow to improve their skills in strengthening national tobacco cessation and treatment systems in accordance with the Guidelines for implementation of Article 14 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

The Region has progressed slowly in providing comprehensive cessation services, and more efforts are needed in the European region.  Although evidence shows that the combination of behavioural support and effective medicine makes smokers up to four times more likely to quit for good, compared to quitting without any support, only a few countries in the Region operate a national quit line and provide cost coverage for both nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and some cessation services.

The training course provided a combination of theory and practice from Russia, countries of the Region, and global experience. Over the course of five days, participants and international experts paid visits to Russian institutions specializing on tobacco cessation.

During the course of the training representatives of Member States, guided by the international technical experts, worked on developing action plans for strengthening national tobacco cessation and treatment systems for 2016-2018 for their countries.

The workshop was organized jointly by WHO/Europe and the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University in the context of the Project on the prevention and control of NCDs, financed by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.