DANGERS OF ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION IN TANZANIA

search findings expose ill effects of liquor sachets

Published on Sunday, 05 April 2015 02:56

Written by MASEMBE TAMBWE

Availability and affordability of liquor sachets to youth is becoming a major cause for concern in society (File Photo)

EASY availability, portability, affordability and accessibility of liquor sachets to youth is becoming a major cause for concern in society.

Findings from ongoing research being conducted by the National Institute of Medical Research - Mwanza Centre under Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit (MITU), found that liquor sachets popularly known as ‘viroba’ are among the top five most consumed or favourable type of alcohol today.

A researcher from the research institute, Ms Haika Osaki, who conducted the study in Mwanza and Kilimanjaro regions said that one of the reasons why he sachets are a favoured drink by many youth is because they are in a small plastic packets and can be easily hidden in the pocket.

“During the study, when we asked why they prefer this drink, we were told that they drink it due to the affordability (as low as 350/- for some) as compared to a bottle of beer which is sold at over 2,000/- and the fact that since it is colourless, they are able to pour it in a water bottle and freely consume it,” she noted.

The study also found that culture is an enabling factor where shopkeepers who choose to sell the sachets among other goods like salt and soap, easily sell them to children because it is not uncommon for them to be sent by their parents.

Ms Osaki said that one of the major obstacles in controlling alcohol use in the country is the confusion surrounding the drafting of an alcohol policy and its progress hitherto.

She said that it is imperative to look at the viroba use issue as an important part of the national discussion on alcohol use and drum up support that exists from Parliament, the media and researchers to ban sachets.

In February, this year, Malawi successfully banned the production, distribution, selling and consumption of sachets after following in the footsteps of Zambia that attained this milestone in 2012 and Kenya in 2004.

Available evidence shows that following the ban from these countries, due to the country’s porous borders, these products have found their way into the country and are now flooding the market and worsening the already dire situation.

Media reports in 2005 quoted Ministry of Trade officials as saying that manufacturers of alcoholic beverages had lost Kenya 300m/- since the previous year’s ban on sachet packaging and that the move also saw the value of alcoholic beverage exports drop from Sh 37.2 billion in 2002 to Sh 143 million last year.

Another researcher from the same institution, Dr Joel Francis, who conducted a study on the epidemiology of alcohol use among young people in Northern Tanzania, said that recent statistics show that 46 per cent of the world’s adolescents aged 15-19 years reported having used alcohol and 34 per cent had used it last year.

Dr Francis said that the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking in adolescents was 8 per cent globally and 6 per cent in Africa and higher among adolescents than adults and that 6 per cent of mortality and 5 per cent of disability adjusted life year’s (DALYs) lost worldwide is due to alcohol use, according to the 2014 World Health Organisation report.

.Public Health and Family Health Consultant, Dr Ali Mzige, said that there was every reason for the nation to be concerned about the use of alcohol among youth people, especially since people who start consuming alcohol before aged 15 are four times as likely to become dependent on alcohol as those who begin at 21.

Dr Mzige said that there was urgent need to enact and enforce legislation to restrict alcohol outlets and accessibility of alcohol by youth and ban all forms of alcohol advertising, promotions and sponsorship by alcohol producing companies.

“Peer to Peer education on those young men and women who have decided to stop taking alcohol will be good ambassadors for those indulging in alcohol binges.

The US has organisations like MADDMothers Against Drunk Drivers and SADD- Students Against Driving Drunk, these are measures that we can emulate,” he said.

Responding to concerns about the progress of the alcohol policy, an official from the Non-Communicable Diseases section in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Mariam Kalomo, said that there is a scheduled meeting soon that will oversee the technical aspects of the formulation process.

A freelance consultant on issues of young people, Dr Laetitia Sayi, said that coming from an educated background, she feels that there is need to include the negative impacts of alcohol in the curriculum such that youth learn from a tender age of the ill effects of alcohol use.