In recognition of the fact that in Latin America and the Caribbean the harmful use of alcohol is one of the leading risk factors for death and disability, the report acknowledges that "alcohol does not receive due attention and action" (foreword). The report is a contribution to bringing about this due attention by pointing to the role of the alcohol industry in influencing regional policies that affect public health and social welfare.

Today is the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, or World Drug Day. The theme for the day is “better facts for better care”, a theme that reflects the need for solutions based on scientific evidence to combat a problem that for decades have been ridden with myths, fear and ignorance.

Governments in Southern Africa made the right choice to ban or restrict availability of alcohol during their COVID-19 lockdown periods, Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance claims. SAAPA supported these decisions. 

We have effective strategies to reduce harmful use of alcohol. Now they must be implemented, says a recent article in The BMJ written by Dag Rekve and colleagues. The article reviews the lack of, and barriers to, implementation of evidence-based cost effective interventions, especially in low and middle income countries. 

IOGT International has launched an updated version of the publication “Alcohol Obstacle to Development; How Alcohol Affects the Sustainable Development Goals”. Of the 17 SDGs the achievement of 14 of them is affected by alcohol.

FORUT recently launched a report written by Anne-Marie Laslett and Megan Cook from the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at La Trobe University in Melbourne. The report is a literature review with the aim of building increased understanding of the effects of alcohol on women and children in the Global South.

Alcohol is a barrier to achieving both good and equitable health, on a global scale. Targets 3.4 and 3.5 of the third Sustainable Development Goal will not be achieved without addressing alcohol use. This is the conclusion of a newly published report written by SERAF, The Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research.

In 2016, the harmful use of alcohol resulted in some 3 million deaths (5.3% of all deaths) worldwide. Mortality resulting from alcohol consumption is higher than that caused by diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and diabetes. These are among the new figures presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 released today. The report also demonstrates that the age-standardized alcohol-attributable burden of disease and injury was highest in the WHO African Region.

There is no safe level of alcohol use. Nearly three million deaths globally were attributed to alcohol use in 2016. Increasing alcohol use may result in increasing health problems in the future in low and middle income countries.

Violence is one of the great scourges of humanity and alcohol fuels much of it. This statement opens a new publication that presents updated knowledge on the relationship between the use of alcohol and violence. The authors argue that levels of violence in a society can be substantially reduced through changes in alcohol policy.