Global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.

The harmful use of alcohol causes an estimated 2.5 million deaths every year, of which a significant proportion occur in the young. Alcohol use is the third leading risk factor for poor health globally. A wide variety of alcohol-related problems can have devastating impacts on individuals and their families and can seriously affect community life. The harmful use of alcohol is one of the four most common modifiable and preventable risk factors for major non-communicable diseases (NCDs). There is also emerging evidence that the harmful use of alcohol contributes to the health burden caused by communicable diseases such as, for example, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Reducing the harmful use of alcohol by effective policy measures and by providing a relevant infrastructure to successfully implement those measures is much more than a public health issue. Indeed, it is a development issue, since the level of risk associated with the harmful use of alcohol in developing countries is much higher than that in high-income countries where people are increasingly protected by comprehensive laws and interventions – and by mechanisms to ensure that these are implemented