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Harmful Use of Alcohol: A Shadow over Sub-Saharan Africa in Need of Workable Solutions.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 03 27; 14(4)IJ

Abstract

Alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable burden of disease in Africa are expected to rise in the near future, yet. increasing alcohol-related harm receives little attention from policymakers and from the population in general. Even where new legislation is proposed it is rarely enacted into law. Being at the center of social and cultural activities in many countries, alcohol's negative role in society and contribution to countries' burden of disease are rarely questioned. After the momentum created by the adoption in 2010 of the WHO Global Strategy and the WHO Regional Strategy (for Africa) to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol, and the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, in 2013, little seems to have been done to address the increasing use of alcohol, its associated burden and the new challenges that derive from the growing influence of the alcohol industry in Africa. In this review, we argue that to have a positive impact on the health of African populations, action addressing specific features of alcohol policy in the continent is needed, namely focusing on particularities linked to alcohol availability, like unrecorded and illicit production, outlet licensing, the expansion of formal production, marketing initiatives and taxation policies.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Ferreira-Borges C
Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1349-008 Lisboa, Portugal. na.carina@gmail.com.
Parry CD
Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town 7505, South Africa. Charles.Parry@mrc.ac.za. Department of Psychiatry, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town 7602, South Africa. Charles.Parry@mrc.ac.za.
Babor TF
Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT 06030, USA. babor@uchc.edu.

MeSH

AdultAdvisory CommitteesAfrica South of the SaharaAge FactorsAlcohol DrinkingAlcohol-Related DisordersFemaleHealth PolicyHealth PromotionHealth Services Needs and DemandHumansLicensureMaleMarketingPolicy Making

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

28346373

Citation

Ferreira-Borges, Carina, et al. "Harmful Use of Alcohol: a Shadow Over Sub-Saharan Africa in Need of Workable Solutions." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 14, no. 4, 2017.
Ferreira-Borges C, Parry CD, Babor TF. Harmful Use of Alcohol: A Shadow over Sub-Saharan Africa in Need of Workable Solutions. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017;14(4).
Ferreira-Borges, C., Parry, C. D., & Babor, T. F. (2017). Harmful Use of Alcohol: A Shadow over Sub-Saharan Africa in Need of Workable Solutions. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14040346
Ferreira-Borges C, Parry CD, Babor TF. Harmful Use of Alcohol: a Shadow Over Sub-Saharan Africa in Need of Workable Solutions. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017 03 27;14(4) PubMed PMID: 28346373.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Harmful Use of Alcohol: A Shadow over Sub-Saharan Africa in Need of Workable Solutions. AU - Ferreira-Borges,Carina, AU - Parry,Charles D H, AU - Babor,Thomas F, Y1 - 2017/03/27/ PY - 2016/12/31/received PY - 2017/03/22/revised PY - 2017/03/23/accepted PY - 2017/3/28/entrez PY - 2017/3/28/pubmed PY - 2017/8/8/medline KW - alcohol consumption KW - alcohol industry KW - alcohol policies KW - alcohol-related burden KW - sub-Saharan Africa JF - International journal of environmental research and public health JO - Int J Environ Res Public Health VL - 14 IS - 4 N2 - Alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable burden of disease in Africa are expected to rise in the near future, yet. increasing alcohol-related harm receives little attention from policymakers and from the population in general. Even where new legislation is proposed it is rarely enacted into law. Being at the center of social and cultural activities in many countries, alcohol's negative role in society and contribution to countries' burden of disease are rarely questioned. After the momentum created by the adoption in 2010 of the WHO Global Strategy and the WHO Regional Strategy (for Africa) to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol, and the WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, in 2013, little seems to have been done to address the increasing use of alcohol, its associated burden and the new challenges that derive from the growing influence of the alcohol industry in Africa. In this review, we argue that to have a positive impact on the health of African populations, action addressing specific features of alcohol policy in the continent is needed, namely focusing on particularities linked to alcohol availability, like unrecorded and illicit production, outlet licensing, the expansion of formal production, marketing initiatives and taxation policies. SN - 1660-4601 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/28346373/Harmful_Use_of_Alcohol:_A_Shadow_over_Sub_Saharan_Africa_in_Need_of_Workable_Solutions_ L2 - https://www.mdpi.com/resolver?pii=ijerph14040346 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -