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Health Minister calls for stronger corporate acts of responsibility - in addressing alcohol consumption

Georgetown, GINA, November 10, 2011
Source - GINA

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Carlos Del Castillo handing over a copy of the 2011 Human Development Report to Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh

Alcohol has an overarching effect on people’s lives, the education and development of children and family and social welfare and the state of the country hence the Health Ministry, cognizant of these facts held a workshop towards drafting an alcohol control plan for Guyana, where it was emphasized that dealing with this matter requires a multi-sectoral approach.

At the forum at Cara Lodge, stakeholders were made aware of the findings of two studies carried out in Guyana; the Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: An International Study (GENACIS) and Alcohol and Injuries in the Emergency Room.

Any discussion on alcohol that does not consider alcohol and its role in injuries, in general, will be a discussion that is limited since as Guyana deals with domestic violence and sexual abuse such must be elevated and occupy center stage, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy told stakeholders.

“There can be absolutely no doubt and you must not equivocate on the fact that the mis-use of alcohol has a very strong link to domestic violence and sexual abuse,” he said.

It must be understood that the mis-use of alcohol is a public health problem with consequences to development, and therefore it is a problem that must be addressed on all fronts.

In this regard, Guyana has been attempting to get importers, manufacturers and distributors of alcohol products to agree on what is corporate responsibility and peer regulation in terms of advertisements.

UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Chisa Mikami making a presentation on the key messages of the 2011 Human Development Report.

With regards to tobacco, Minister Ramsammy pointed out that while Guyana does not have Tobacco Legislation, yet there is rigid control on advertisements relating to tobacco products; excluding those that appear in international programming and magazines.

Minister Ramsammy stated that the kind of advertisements being aired for alcohol indicate corporate irresponsibility hence the genre of alcohol promotion programmes contribute to health and social challenges.

Guyana will play a global role in ensuring the world steps up to the plate and recognises that mis-use of alcohol has a terrible impact on people’s lives and on development.

The Minister noted that one of the early challenges in addressing the misuse of alcohol and its impact on people and the developmental status of a country is the fact that generally, across the world, there is a lack of information regarding to the amount of alcohol being produced, legally, and sold; but in terms of alcohol use data was lacking nevertheless, Guyana and other countries have begun to remedy that particular aspect of the misuse of alcohol.

In 2008, Guyana made a start to address the lack of data with the projects such as GENACIS and Alcohol and Injuries in the Emergency Room, however monitoring alcohol use, injuries and other illnesses linked to alcohol are now an integral part of the data collection component of the Health Ministry.

Minister Ramsammy noted that public health practitioners have begun to recognise that alcohol plays a major role in the development of diseases particularly chronic non-communicable diseases however; alcohol must also be recognised as a risk factor for morbidity and mortality.

“The truth is that there are infectious chronic illnesses that are also linked to the mis-use of alcohol, we must not underestimate the role that alcohol has played in the transmission of HIV… the truth is that we have failed to reduce poverty in a reciprocal manner to the investment we have made and that is because the misuse of alcohol has not been addressed adequately,” the Minister emphasised.

Through the leadership of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and PAHO more intense focus is being placed on addressing alcohol mis-use and this is evident in the approval of a resolution to deal with the mis-use of alcohol by the World Health Assemble, in 2009, however there is now the call for efforts to be accelerated.

Representative (Ag.) Pan American Health Organisation, Andrian Vlugman pointed out that alcohol consumption has become a leading health factor worldwide and that PAHO reports indicate that alcohol is responsible for 4 percent of the building of diseases, reduction of life expectancy and accounts for 3.2 percent of deaths worldwide.

“Alcohol is the leading risk factor in the developing countries with low mortality rates… alcohol use has been spreading worldwide despite the fact that its consumption is not free of risk,” he said.

Vlugman noted that the PAHO/Valencia project is a corporate agreement between the organisation and the Government of Valencia, Spain, to support activities aimed at reducing harmful use of alcohol in the Americas including Guyana, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

The goals of this project are to undertake research on alcohol consumption and related problems, to train health professionals on screening; coming up with interventions to reduce alcohol consumption in primary health care settings and to develop a national plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.

Vlugman recognizes that Guyana’s pro-activeness in the control of alcohol consumption is evident in Guyana’s participation in PAHO’s global alcohol survey which facilitated the gathering of base-line information in 2008.

The Health Ministry approved PAHO’s global strategy for abuse and harmful use of alcohol in 2010 and, in 2011, the Ministry participated in the organization’s meeting of alcohol counterparts to discuss implementation of the global strategy.

This project has resulted in increased awareness in and out of the Health Ministry on the relationship between alcohol consumption and public health.

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quote:

Vlugman noted that the PAHO/Valencia project is a corporate agreement between the organisation and the Government of Valencia, Spain, to support activities aimed at reducing harmful use of alcohol in the Americas including Guyana, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

FM
quote:

In 2008, Guyana made a start to address the lack of data with the projects such as GENACIS and Alcohol and Injuries in the Emergency Room, however monitoring alcohol use, injuries and other illnesses linked to alcohol are now an integral part of the data collection component of the Health Ministry.

FM

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