Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka Government of Sri Lanka Country Resources General Health Policies Sri Lanka 20 May 2016 Policy document

This translation feature uses a third-party service. Please be advised that the machine-translated content may not be accurate. Translation only applies to this page and is not available for downloaded files or external links.

Print

Description

In Sri Lanka 7 out of 10 deaths are due to Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) and alcohol consumption is identified as one of the four causal factors, the other three being tobacco use, unhealthy dietary habits, and lack of exercise. The current prevalence of alcohol consumption in Sri Lanka is 39.6% among males and 2.4% among females (National Alcohol Use Prevalence Survey in Sri Lanka, 2012). Hence, any increase in the prevalence of alcohol use could have a significant impact on the burden of disease and has to be avoided at any cost (Global Status Report on Alcohol, 2011). It is assuring that despite widespread consumption, a higher percentage of people currently do not drink alcohol at all.
The National Policy on Alcohol Control is presented in this context, giving due consideration to the obligations of the Government of Sri Lanka under the WHO Global Alcohol Policy initiative and the WHO Global Plan to reduce mortality due to NCDs by 25% by 2025, the latter being aftermath to the Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, attended by His Excellency the President in 2011 (United Nations General Assembly Resolution - UN-A/RES/66/2).

Document in Sinhala page:1-27, English page:28-42

Content