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A nation drinking itself to the grave
Dar es Salaam.
A rising number of Tanzanians are drinking themselves into an early
grave, according to a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report. The
2014 Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health suggests that thousands
of young Tanzanians will die if the government does not step in. The
harmful use of alcohol is a factor in more than 200 diseases and injury
conditions, according to the report that provides country profiles for
the 194 WHO member states. “More needs to be done to protect populations
from the negative health consequences of alcohol consumption,” says Dr
Oleg Chestnov, WHO assistant director-general for non-communicable
Diseases and Mental Health. “The report clearly shows that there is no
room for complacency when it comes to reducing the harmful use of
alcohol.”
Men
suffer the most from the negative consequences of drinking in Tanzania.
Some 67.4 per cent of men and 65.1 per cent of women in every 100,000
alcohol users aged 15 and older are prone to death caused by liver
cancer as a direct consequence of heavy drinking.
According
to 2012 figures, road traffic accidents attributed to alcohol claim the
lives of 19 per cent of males and 6.8 per cent of females in every
100,000 people aged 15+ in the country.
The
average number of years of potential life lost (YPLL) by alcohol
consumers here, the report notes, is three but climbs to as high as five
among some drinkers. YPLL is an estimate of the average years a person
would have lived if he or she had not died prematurely.
Globally,
a total of 3.3 million people died in 2012 due to harmful use of
alcohol. Alcohol consumption, the report notes, raises the risk of
developing some cancers. In addition, harmful drinking can lead to
violence and injuries.
The
report also finds that harmful use of alcohol makes people more
susceptible to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia.
In Africa, excessive drinking has also been known to fuel HIV
infections.
A
higher percentage of deaths worldwide among men than women are from
alcohol-related causes--7.6 per cent of men’s deaths and four per cent
of women’s deaths--the report points out. However, there is evidence
that women may be more vulnerable to some alcohol-related health
conditions. In addition, there is concern about the steady rise in
alcohol use among women.
“We
found that worldwide about 16 per cent of drinkers engage in heavy
episodic drinking--often referred to as binge-drinking--which is the
most harmful to health,” says Dr Shekhar Saxena, director for Mental
Health and Substance Abuse at WHO. “Lower-income groups are more
affected by the social and health consequences of alcohol. They often
lack quality healthcare and are less protected by functional family or
community networks.”
A
whopping 34 per cent of Tanzanians who drink indulge in binge drinking,
according to the report. More shockingly, 40.6 per cent of Tanzanian
men engage in heavy episodic drinking among those who could drink at
least 60 grammes or more of pure alcohol on at least one occasion in 30
days. The harmful use of alcohol impacts on people and societies in many
ways and it is determined by the volume consumed, the pattern of
drinking and the quality of alcohol.
Drinking
alcohol is also associated with the risk of developing health problems
such as mental and behavioural disorders, including alcohol dependence,
major non-communicable diseases such as liver cirrhosis, some cancers
and cardiovascular diseases, injuries resulting from violence and road
crashes.
The
latest causal relationships are those between alcohol consumption and
incidence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis as well as the
cause of HIV/AIDS. Expectant mothers who drink may trigger foetal
alcohol syndrome and pre-term birth complications.
A significant proportion of the disease burden that can be attributed to
harmful drinking arises from injuries, including those due to road
traffic crashes, violence and suicide. Fatal injuries attributable to
alcohol consumption tend to occur in relatively younger age groups.
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