“Alcohol in any form should be avoided in medical conferences/ workshops/ seminars/ continuing medical education (CME) sessions,’’ said the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) to its doctors in its latest advisory, stating that they should set an example of good habits, which can be emulated by others.
The advisory comes around the same time as the National Medical Commission (NMC) guidelines that listed the professional responsibilities of medical students, teachers, and institutes, which it claimed was brought in to instill a sense of responsibility.
The DGHS’ one-page letter issued to all medical associations said the goal of the advisory was to reduce the risk factors and the non-communicable diseases (NCD) burden in the country in the long run.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), alcohol consumption is a causal factor in more than 200 diseases, injuries and other health conditions. Drinking alcohol is associated with a risk of developing health problems such as mental and behavioural disorders, including alcohol dependence, and major non-communicable diseases such as liver cirrhosis, some cancers and cardiovascular diseases.
There are gender differences in alcohol-related mortality and morbidity, as well as levels and patterns of alcohol consumption. The percentage of alcohol-attributable deaths among men amounts to 7.7% of all global deaths compared to 2.6% of all deaths among women.
The DGHS said that 5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury was attributable to alcohol as measured in disability adjusted life years (DALYs).
It added that in India, the rise of NCDs has been driven by primarily four major risk factors – tobacco use, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol and unhealthy diet.
“Alcohol use is linked to many diseases and injury conditions including liver cirrhosis, several cancers (liver, laryngeal, esophagal and oropharyngeal cancers), injuries and haemorrhagic strokes,’’ noted the letter.
It also said that NCDs are estimated to account for 63% of all deaths in country. Cardiovascular diseases caused 27% of the deaths, followed by respiratory diseases (11%), cancer (9%), diabetes (3%) and others (13%), as per the WHO-NCD India profile (2018).
