(CMR) Over three million deaths per year have been attributed to alcohol consumption and drug use, a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found.
The report highlights that 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.
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.
Some 724,000 deaths were due to injuries, such as those from traffic crashes, self-harm, and interpersonal violence. Another 284,000 deaths were linked to communicable diseases. For example, alcohol consumption has been shown to increase the risk of HIV transmission, resulting from an increased risk of unprotected sex and 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.
“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,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“It places a heavy burden on families and communities, increasing exposure to accidents, injuries, and violence,” he added.
The report found an estimated 400 million people live with alcohol and drug use disorders globally. More than half of these individuals lived with alcohol dependence.
Given the immense health concerns, the report urged accelerated global action 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.
Treatment coverage for substance abuse disorders remains incredibly low. The proportion of people in contact with substance use treatment services ranged from less than one percent to no more than 35 percent in countries providing this data.
Most of the 145 countries that reported data did not have a specific budget or data on governmental expenditures for the treatment of substance use disorders.
Meanwhile, almost half of the responding countries do not offer any substance abuse support groups.