The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) has introduced Self-Learning Courses on several aspects of alcohol and drug harm and policy. The virtual courses may be accessed by anyone and are available in English and Spanish.

“Efforts to prevent non-communicable diseases go against the business interests of powerful economic operators. In my view, this is one of the biggest challenges facing health promotion”, said Dr. Margaret Chan in her opening address to the Health for All conference in Helsinki.

The 66th World Health Assembly opened in Geneva today. One of the main issues is how the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD) will be handled in the future. Referring to the difference between malaria and NCDs the Director General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, in her opening speech stated that “Mosquitoes do not have front groups, and mosquitoes do not have lobbies.”

WHO Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan, will protect alcohol policy making from commercial or vested interests of the alcohol industry. She welcomes an initiative by researchers and civil society organizations that keep careful watch over the behaviour of the alcohol industry.

In the development goals that will follow the Millennium Development Goals alcohol needs to be addressed, says the Global Alcoholhol Policy Alliance. This is the topic of a paper contributed to the consultation by WHO and UNICEF on Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

A historic moment! A significant success! Great words were used at the closing of the Global Alcohol Policy Conference in Bangkok 15 February, - and for good reasons. The conference had everything in terms of technical contents, commitment from participants as well as excellent conference facilities and local staff.

An article in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization raises concerns regarding conflict of interest in a partnership where SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer by sales volume, receive funding from the Global Fund for a HIV/AIDS prevention project in drinking establishements in South Africa. "No conflict of interest" replies the Global Fund.

An editorial by Robin Room, Jürgen Rehm and Charles Parry in the journal Addiction points to the September High Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly as an occasion to remedy the relative lack of action on alcohol in reducing the burden of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD).

Noncommunicable diseases are the leading killer today and are on the increase, the first WHO Global status report on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) launched In Moscow during the WHO Global Forum confirms. But millions of deaths can be prevented by stronger implementation of measures that exist today.

At the opening of the recent WHO Global Forum, Addressing the Challenge of Noncommunicable Diseases, Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in her opening statement called the rise of chronic noncommunicable diseases an impending disaster - for health, for society, and most of all for national economies."

The 2011 edition of the Global status report on alcohol and health confirms that alcohol is a major threat to global public health and welfare. Drinking alcohol kills more people than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or violence.

Two key documents are now available from the freshly redesigned web site of the WHO Management of Substance Abuse.

The World Health Assembly passed on the 20th of May a resolution endorsing a Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. It was a very interesting discussion in the Assembly where some 35 member states spoke - all in favour of the strategy. Three NGOs/civil society alliances also made statements supporting the resolution.

Yesterday the United Nations General Assembly decided to convene a high-level UN meeting in September 2011 on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases. Heads of State and Government will be attending

The World Health Assembly, at its meeting in May, will have before it a Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol.

On Friday 22 January the WHO Executive Board Session passed a resolution which recommends to the World Health Assembly (WHA) to endorse the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol.

WHO has released the new estimates on the Global Health Risks, based on the Global Burden of Disease figures from 2004. Alcohol use is risk factor number eight for mortality in the world and the third risk factor for burden of disease.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization will discuss a Draft Global Strategy to Reduce Harmful use of Alcohol in its January 2010 meeting. The documents, including the draft strategy are now available.

An editorial in the September issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization announces a new report with updated estimates of global health risks".

A working document for developing a draft global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol has been released by the WHO secretariat. The document will be the base for further consultations with WHO member states.

The WHO member states keeps the Social Determinants of Health process on track by passing a resolution based on the commission report at the World Health Assembly last month. The Health Assembly next year will discuss a proposed global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol.

Input from NGOs, alcohol industry and other institutions to the WHO process towards a Global Strategy are now available at the WHO web site.

Dates are now set for the regional consultation meetings between WHO and the Member States. They are part of the process towards a Global Strategy to reduce Harmful Use of Alcohol. The first meeting will take place in Bangkok in the end of February.

Closing the gap in health inequities in a generation is the ambitious goal described in the report from the WHO Commission on Social Determinants on Health. (Photo: WHO)

NGOs worldwide are now invited to join an information sharing network connected to the WHO process leading up to a Global Strategy on alcohol.

In a press release 2 October WHO invites all interested parties to participate in a web-based public hearing to present their views on effective strategies to reduce the burden resulting from the harmful use of alcohol. WHO was asked by its Member States in May at the World Health Assembly to develop a global strategy to combat the harmful use of alcohol. The hearing is a part of this work. Submissions must be given before 31 October.

In its session Thursday 22 May the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution that calls for the development of a global strategy to reduce harmful consumption of alcohol. The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance welcomes the decision.

This week the World Health Assembly is in session at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. A resolution calling for a global strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm is on the agenda.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) passed on the 22nd of January a resolution that will be recommended to the World Health Assembly in May this year, asking for a global strategy on harmful use of alcohol.

New data show that global HIV prevalence - the number of people living with HIV - has levelled off. The number of new infections has fallen. This was the conclusion drawn by UNAIDS when new AIDS statistics were presented.

The influential medical journal The Lancet has in a recent editorial called for a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control. The journal says that next year's World Health Assembly provides a crucial opportunity for WHO and member states to make those first steps towards a global treaty to reduce alcohol-related harm.

The World Health Assembly in Geneva in May discussed strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm. In spite of broad support from many of the WHO member countries to a resolution calling for global action on the harmful use of alcohol, the discussion ended in a stalemate. The WHO Executive Board will take up the issue again in its meeting in January next year.

Today the report from the WHO Expert Committee on Problems Related to Alcohol Consumption was presented. The Commitee urges the World Health Organization to continue to play a leading role in coordinating a global response to the global nature of alcohol problems. It also recommends that WHO continue its practice of no collaboration with the alcohol industry.

The Health ministers from all over the world will discuss the health burden of alcohol in the forthcoming World Health Assembly to be held in Geneva 14-23 May. This is the follow up of the WHA resolution 58.26 Public health problems caused by harmful use of alcohol, from 2005, the first WHA resolution exclusively on alcohol since 1983. The documents for the alcohol issue are now available on the WHO site.

The summary of the book by Thomas Babor and a team of researchers, Alcohol: No ordinary Commodity; research and public policy is now available for free on the web site of the journal Addiction. Comments to the various chapters of the book can also be downloaded from the site.

The journal Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs in 2005 carried two articles on WHO and alcohol. Robin Room writes the history of ups and downs of two decades, while Norwegian government official, Bernt Bull, elaborates on the the Nordic countries and the WHA 58:26 resolution.

The 58 World Health Assebly has adopted a resolution calling on WHO to examine public health problems caused by the harmful use of alcohol.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently published the Global Status Report: Alcohol Policy. It aims to describe the present status of existing alcohol policies worldwide. The report is based on a review of existing policies in 118 countries and provides a brief snapshot of what is known about the effectiveness of alcohol policy measures.