TheWorld Health Organization in the lead-up to World Suicide Prevention Day onSeptember 10 has said that the number of countries with national suicideprevention strategies has increased in the five years since the publication ofWHO's first global report on suicide.
But thetotal number of countries with strategies, at just 38, is still far too few andgovernments need to commit to establishing them.
Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that despite progress, one person still dies every 40 seconds from suicide.
He further stated that every death is a tragedy for family, friends, and colleagues. Yet suicides are preventable. He said that all the countries are being called on to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programmes in a sustainable way.
Accordingto reports, the global age-standardized suicide rate for 2016 was 10.5 per 100000. Rates varied widely, however, between countries, from 5 suicide deaths per100 000 to more than 30 per 100 000. While 79 per cent of the world's suicides occurredin low and middle-income countries, high-income countries had the highest rate,at 11.5 per 100 000.
The reports also state that nearly three times as many men as women die by suicide in high-income countries, in contrast to low and middle-income countries, where the rate is more equal.
Suicidewas the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29 years,after road injury.
The reportfurther stated that among teenagers aged 15-19 years, suicide was the secondleading cause of death among girls (after maternal conditions) and the thirdleading cause of death in boys (after road injury and interpersonal violence).
The most common methods of suicide are hanging, pesticide self-poisoning, and firearms. Key interventions that have shown success in reducing suicides are restricting access to means, educating the media on responsible reporting of suicide, implementing programmes among young people to build life skills that enable them to cope with life stresses and early identification, management and follow-up of people at risk of suicide.
