Eastern Europe and the countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union have the highest rates of alcohol consumption in the world, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The group said that harmful use of alcohol results in the death of 2.5 million people annually around the world (more than AIDS or tuberculosis), causing illness and injury to many more, and increasingly affects younger generations and drinkers in developing countries.
“Many countries recognize the serious public health problems caused by the harmful use of alcohol and have taken steps to prevent the health and social burdens and treat those in need of care. But clearly much more needs to be done to reduce the loss of life and suffering associated with harmful alcohol use,” said Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health.
Also, according to WHO data, almost 4 percent of all deaths are related to alcohol. Most alcohol-related deaths are caused by alcohol result from injuries, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and liver cirrhosis. Globally, 6.2 percent of all male deaths are related to alcohol, compared to 1.1 percent of female deaths. In the Russian Federation and neighboring countries, one-in-five men die of alcohol-related causes.
The WHO’s data covers the year 2005 and measures alcohol consumption by the equivalent number of litres of pure alcohol annually consumed per capita.
A landlocked former Soviet Republic, bordered by Poland to the west and Ukraine and Russia to the south and east, Belarus has much the same alcoholism problems as its neighbors. The number of women alcoholics in the country has surged by 37 percent over the past five years.ReutersAlcohol is a crucial part of Slovene culture and is closely associated with many rituals and festivals. Nestled between Italy and Austria to the west and north, and Croatia and Hungary to the west and south, the country also has a long tradition of wine making, beer brewing and home distilling. But there is a price to pay. According to official data, every fifth man and every 25th woman in the country is an alcoholic. About one-third of fatal traffic accident in Slovenia is alcohol-related. Among EU countries, Slovenia has among the highest rates of alcohol-related disease rates, such as liver diseases. Every year, more than 500 people die from alcohol-related causes (in a country of about 2-million).ReutersDrinking is popular across all social classes in Romania, but especially in the villages, where almost every celebration involves the consumption of alcohol. Declining living standards and worsening poverty made the drinking problem much worse. Alcoholism is also considered to have helped spread HIV/AIDS in Romania.ReutersThis tiny landlocked mountain paradise between France and Spain has a huge problem with alcoholism. Andorra is closely associated with absinthe, a highly alcoholic anise-flavored spirit popular for centuries, particularly among French writers and artists.siakhenn.tripod.comThe drinking problem in Estonia, a former Soviet Republic on the Baltic coast, became so bad that the government moved to ban advertisement of strong alcohol to young people. But sales kept climbing.
According to a survey by the Estonian Institute of Economic Research a few years ago, about 86 percent of the adult population, from 16 to 75-years-old, consumed alcohol. In the past dozen years, Estonia (one of the smaller states in the EU) 45,700 people between the ages of 15 and 49 years died solely due to alcoholism.
travelblogAlcoholism is rampant in the Ukraine, particularly in the dreary small towns in the eastern part of the country. The problem has become so acute that last year, a political party called The Party of Regions proposed an increase in the excise duty on booze.
“We have to do something to make people drink less vodka” said party member Yuriy Miroshnychenko.
“We really have to decrease alcohol consumption in Ukraine… Every day 40 Ukrainians die of alcoholism, 98% of teenagers below 15 years old consume alcohol… Ukraine is number one in Europe in alcohol consumption among kids.”
ReutersRussians have long been enamored with spirits, but alcohol consumption really started to escalate in the late 1980s as more people gravitated towards hard liquor, wine as well as the national drink, vodka. In the 1990s sales of alcohol tripled. The heavy drinking is believed to be contributing to a declining life expectancy, a grave concern for a nation that is suffering a falling birth rate.
At least 2-million (perhaps many, many more) Russians are hard-core alcoholics and statistics show that three-quarters of young people drink at least twice a month.ReutersHungary is notorious for having one of the highest suicide rates in the world, but it also has a severe alcoholism problem. In the 1980s, the rate of alcoholism grew at the fastest rate in the world, fuelled partly by a rapid rise in the number of youth and females getting drunk. ReutersFor males in the Czech Republic, the average annual consumption is an astonishing 26.59 litres of pure alcohol. Once a traditional beer-drinking people, more and more Czechs are quaffing wine. One ex-alcoholic, Monika Plocová, told the media: “the number of people dependent on alcohol is increasing. We think the figure is around 700,000. We expect that figure to rise because the pressure on people is increasing and they turn to alcohol more and more as a not very expert solution and form of self treatment.” Compounding the problem is the lack of adequate treatment centers.
“I would say that there are not enough treatment centres given the fact that that the problem is increasing,” she added. “I think there should be more centres. We have started to set up a new centre but, unfortunately, with private funds because we just cannot get them from the resources for social care set aside for this problem by the Ministry of Health.”
ReutersMoldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe located between Romania and Ukraine and is one of the poorest nations in Europe, perhaps the very poorest. The 1998 Russian financial crisis devastated Moldova to the point where three-quarters of the country lives below the poverty line and more than 600,000 people emigrated. Widespread poverty and hopelessness has also exacerbated drug addiction and pushed many young Moldovan females into prostitution in western Europe.Perhaps not surprisingly, Moldova is also well known for its long-standing wine industry.
Reuters
