Kingdom, WHO to seek ways to stop alcohol abuse
Thailand and the World Health Organisation are to investigate ways to reduce alcohol abuse and associated health problems.
The results of the collaboration will help developing nations battle alcohol-related social issues. The WHO and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) agreed yesterday to find measures best suited to the Kingdom's alcohol-abuse problem, WHO assistant director-general Dr Catherine Le Gals-Camus said. There will be an assessment of existing measures and policies including sin taxes and other research. The results will be shared with the rest of the world, she said. "It's very important to recognise that what works in one particular religious or country context might not be applicable in another," Le Gals-Camus said. The research would seek to find country-specific solutions. Most studies of alcohol-related problems were done in the developed world. Very few had been conducted in less developed countries, she said. "If we want effective interventions we need more research," she said. "What do we know about the burden of diseases related to alcohol and what measures work and what do not work?" More than 2.3 million people died of alcohol-related causes in 2002, accounting for 3.7 per cent of world deaths that year, Le Gals-Camus said. "A relationship has been established between alcohol consumption and more than 60 types of disease and injury," she said, adding that there was growing evidence of a link between alcohol and infectious diseases such HIV/Aids and tuberculosis. In response to demands for a reduction in alcohol-related harm last year's WHO Assembly resolved to curb health and social problems attributed to alcohol and the memorandum of understanding between WHO and ThaiHealth was a product of that, Le Gals-Camus said. WHO expert Professor Robin Room said recent analysis of 26 different risk factors for diseases "surprisingly" ranked alcohol very high for health and disabilities. He said in the absence of public health measures alcohol consumption tended to rise, particularly in the developing world. "The fight against alcohol-related problems is a long-term war, not just a short battle," explained ThaiHealth chief executive officer Dr Supakorn Buasai.
Arthit Khwankhom The Nation
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