Liver Disease ‘Doubles In Decade’

By BBC News19th June 2007News Scotland

The number of people in Scotland diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease has doubled in a decade. Information released to the Scots Tories in response to a parliamentary question, showed figures in some areas had trebled and even quadrupled.

Conservative health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said more had to be done to warn people of the dangers of drink. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has called for a united approach in changing attitudes to alcohol. Scotland has the highest death rate from alcohol in the UK and the highest rate for liver cirrhosis in Europe.

The number of Scots diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease had doubled from 1,731 in 1996 to 3,541 last year. In the Highlands and Dumfries and Galloway, the figure has nearly trebled and in the Western Isles it quadrupled.

Ms Scanlon claimed that underage drinking was the root of the problem, adding that the laws in place to prevent it had to be “seriously enforced” at all times. “Lifestyles have changed a lot in the past two decades and we now see women drinking as much as men,” she said.

The figures covered acute hospital in-patients only and statisticians warned that not all hospitals may record alcohol misuse in the same way. Ms Sturgeon said: “We need a renewed emphasis on the burden alcohol places not only on our health service, but on our country as a whole.

“While we can welcome the falling numbers of people developing lung cancer, the rising incidence of liver disease highlights the grip alcohol has over many people. Changing attitudes to alcohol will be a long term campaign. A campaign we will need to enforce. A campaign I hope the health service, politicians and the drinks industry will join us in fighting.”

ALCOHOLIC LIVER DISEASE 1996 AND 2007 FIGURES