World Health Organization (WHO), in its new reports, has said that over 3 million annual deaths occur in the world due to alcohol and drug use, the majority among men.
WHO’s Global status report, in its new release, highlights that 2.6 million deaths per year were attributable to alcohol consumption, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths, and 0.6 million deaths to psychoactive drug use, adding that notably, 2 million of alcohol and 0.4 million of drug-attributable deaths were among men.
The report declared that an estimated 400 million people live with alcohol and drug use disorders globally. Of this, 209 million people lived with alcohol dependence.
According to the WHO, despite some reduction in alcohol-related death rates since 2010, the overall number of deaths due to alcohol consumption remains unacceptably high and amounts to 2.6 million in 2019, with the highest numbers in the European Region and the African region.
“The death rates due to alcohol consumption per liter of alcohol consumed are highest in low-income countries and lowest in high-income countries. countries.
“Of all deaths attributable to alcohol in 2019, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were from noncommunicable diseases, including 474,000 deaths from cardiovascular diseases and 401,000 from cancer.
“For example, alcohol consumption has been shown to increase the risk of HIV transmission resulting from an increased risk of unprotected sex and by increasing the risk of TB infection and mortality by suppressing a wide range of immune responses.
“The highest proportion (13%) of alcohol-attributable deaths in 2019 were among young people aged 20–39 years.”
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a remark said, “Substance use severely harms individual health, increasing the risk of chronic diseases, mental health conditions, and tragically resulting in millions of preventable deaths every year. It places a heavy burden on families and communities, increasing exposure to accidents, injuries, and violence.”
He added, “To build a healthier, more equitable society, we must urgently commit to bold actions that reduce the negative health and social consequences of alcohol consumption and make treatment for substance use disorders accessible and affordable.”
WHO’s Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health and Treatment of Substance Use Disorders provides a comprehensive update based on 2019 data on the public health impact of alcohol and drug use and the situation with alcohol consumption and treatment of substance use disorders worldwide.
The report highlights the urgent need to accelerate actions globally towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.5 by 2030 by reducing alcohol and drug consumption and improving access to quality treatment for substance use disorders.
Effective treatment options for substance use disorders exist, but treatment coverage remains incredibly low. In countries providing this data, the proportion of people in contact with substance use treatment services ranged from less than 1% to no more than 35% in 2019.
Most of the 145 countries that reported data did not have a specific budget line or data on governmental expenditures for the treatment of substance use disorders. Although mutual help and peer support groups are useful resources for people with substance use disorders, almost half of responding countries reported that they do not offer such support groups for substance use disorders .
Stigma, discrimination and misconceptions about the efficacy of treatment contribute to these critical gaps in treatment provision, as well as the continued low prioritization of substance use disorders by health and development agencies.
Source: Nigerian Tribune