New Mexico, USA: Alcohol-Related Liver Disease Epidemic
New Mexico experiences the highest alcohol related death rate in the USA. The leading cause is liver disease and within the last 5 years the rate of people dying from liver disease rose by 35%.
State epidemiologist Michael Landen urges that the same efforts applied to curb opioid overdose deaths need to be applied to alcohol. New Mexico used to rank number one in the country for opioid overdose deaths, is now the 17th.
We have shown we can work together to make substantial changes to substance use-related death issues, we just haven’t been able to effectively deal with the alcohol-related death,” said Michael Landen, New Mexico state epidemiologist, as per KUNM.
According to data from the State Department of Health, alcohol plays a role in one in every five deaths among working adults in New Mexico. Evidence shows that the most effective solution to the crisis is to reduce alcohol consumption – for example through affordability and availability measures. The Department of Health recommendations include increasing alcohol taxes and limiting when people can buy alcohol.
However, despite these recommendation and the growing alcohol harm, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, recently signed a bill that lowers alcohol taxes for some local producers and expands alcohol vending hours.
Both alcohol taxation and restricting access to alcohol are recommended by WHO as evidence based, cost-effective policy tools in curbing the alcohol harm, which would help to reduce alcohol harm in New Mexico substantially, if implemented.
Alcohol Harm in USA
© WHO Global Alcohol Status Report 2018
Alcohol consumption in the USA is higher comparative to the WHO Americas region and shows an increase from 9.3% in 2010 to 9.8% in 2016.
- More than 34,000 deaths due to liver cirrhosis are alcohol-related.
- More than 30,000 deaths due to cancer are alcohol-related.
- More than 14,000 road traffic injuries are alcohol-related.
Further a staggering 17.6% American men and 10.4% American women suffer from alcohol use disorders, both comparatively above the WHO Americas region. Almost half of all alcohol consumers between the age of 15 to 19 years engage in binge alcohol use – an age when they are still minors.
It is evident from the data that the United States needs to improve their alcohol control policy implementation both at the national and the sub-national level, to curb the epidemic levels of alcohol harm.
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