Alcoholism Doesn’t Yield in Russia
The age-old problem of Russia, alcoholism, hasn't become less acute along with prosperity growth. The July poll of the Public Opinion Fund showed that 41 percent of respondents think alcoholism one of the five most urgent problems of the region. In terms of popularity, alcoholism is the second challenge for the country, well ahead of the price growth, arbitrary rule of bureaucrats and the money shortage.
No one in Russia doubts the acuteness of alcoholism. But the actual extend of this urgency is yet unclear, even the World Health Organization has not enough data available.
The economic losses caused by alcohol haven’t been evaluated here, said Sergey Polyatykin from the No to Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Fund. According to traffic police, 9.3 percent of all road accidents of the past year could be blamed on the drunken drivers. The good news is that the number shed 10 percent on year.
The number of deaths caused by alcoholism calls for exact evaluation as well, Polyatykin said, stressing the medical statistics don’t mention whether the wine and spirits were the reason of acute cardiovascular inefficiency. Though the peak of alcohol deaths happened in the 1990’s, the outbreak hasn’t reeled back. Moreover, the number of new patients with the alcoholic insanity (delirium tremens) diagnosis is rising continuously; 446,800 new cases were registered in 2004, while the overall number of patients reached 2.6 million.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 29, 2006
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