Alcohol intake poses grave threat to public health in Angola: expert

A leading Angolan expert has warned that the over intake of alcoholic drinks posed a grave threat to public health and made at least 50 people insane everyday in the African country.

The Luanda lunatic asylum admitted 110 to 120 patients a day, most of whom were young adults addicted to alcohol, aged between 12 to 40, and the over intake of alcoholic drinks resulted in depression, illusions and mental disorder and the patients could not perform their duties on their jobs, said clinical psychologist Jaime Sampaio in an interview with local reporters to mark the Alcoholics Anonymous day which falls on June 17.

The expert said most of the patients arrived at the hospital in a state of mental disorpder, while some others from broken families ended up in street corners and nobody bothered to take them to hospitals.

He said Angola took the 11th place in African countries in terms of per capita alcohol consumption, according to a 2014 report by the World Health Organization.

"In Luanda, alcoholic drinks are too much easily available like fruits," he said, adding that "we are hardly aware that too much intake of alcohol posed a geave threat to our health".

Jaime Sampaio called on the government to impose a ban on alcohol sales to under 18s, and to stipulate the time and place to sell alcoholic drinks.

He also called for time and space restrictions on advertisements on alcoholic drinks as they had a negative impact on young adults and conducive to alcohol addiction. Endit