VietNamNet Bridge – According to a World Health Organization (WHO) comparison of per capita consumption in litres of pure alcohol, Vietnamese—at 8.7 litres per year—out-drink residents of all other Southeast Asian nations.

"There's a huge problem with drinking in Vietnam," says Vu Minh Hanh, deputy director of the Health Strategy and Policy Institute under the Ministry of Health.

“The nation spends billions of Vietnam Dong on wine, beer and spirits annually with some estimates placing the annual consumption at three billion litres.”

A global drive by the WHO to tackle the causes of diseases linked to lifestyle, such as alcohol abuse – reported that beer, wine and other spirits are a direct cause of 30 diseases and the indirect cause of around 200 others.

Overall, alcohol abuse is one of the top 10 leading causes of death the WHO has concluded.

According to the WHO, 21% of fatalities caused by cancer could be prevented if people would abstain from the use of alcoholic beverages, meanwhile alcohol abuse is on the rise in Vietnam, Hanh said.

Overall the WHO attributes 5.1 % of the global burden of disease and injury to alcohol.  The figure in Vietnam is just 4.5%, much lower than the rate in developed western countries where it is as high as 8.8%.

A significant proportion of the disease burden attributable to alcohol abuse arises from unintentional and intentional injuries, including those due to road traffic crashes, violence, and suicides, and many fatal alcohol-related injuries tend to occur in relatively younger age groups.

In addition, there are causal relationships between harmful drinking and incidence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Alcohol consumption by an expectant mother has also been linked to fetal alcohol syndrome and pre-term birth complications.

As the problem continues to manifest, Hanh said that Vietnam will continue to struggle to cope with the spiralling costs of treatment and care for patients, and the nation is ill-equipped for the burden to come.

Despite exciting medical advances we cannot treat our way out of the cancer and other disease related problems caused by alcohol abuse. More commitment to prevention and early detection is desperately needed.

This is why the Government has authorized the Ministry of Health to prepare a revised draft of the Law on Beer and Alcohol Harm Prevention, which Hanh said will be submitted to the National Assembly by the end of the year.

Vietnam, like all countries, has a responsibility for formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating public policies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and currently alternative strategies to regulate the marketing of alcoholic beverages and restricting their availability are under consideration.

Other options on the table include enacting appropriate drink-driving policies, reducing demand through taxation and pricing mechanisms and alternatives to raising awareness of public health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol.

We will also consider providing accessible and affordable treatment for people with alcohol-use disorders, Hanh said.

Regulating alcohol use is a complicated issue as it touches on a variety of factors such as education level, cultural background, gender, income levels, availability of alcohol, and the effectiveness of implementing and enforcing alcohol policies.

Meanwhile we have limited resources and lack materials and information to supply to citizens to educate them on the dangers of alcohol abuse and encourage them to support the policy and change their behaviour.

The first message we want to send to citizens is not to drink excessive amounts of wine, beer or other spirits.

Medical doctors advise that a man should consume no more than two units of alcohol a day and one unit for women. A unit of alcohol is defined as a 330ml bottle of beer, or a 30ml cup of 40-degree brandy, or a 150ml glass of wine.

VOV