Alcohol-based cirrhosis on rise in Britain
Cases involving cirrhosis of the liver by alcohol among British people aged 25-to-34 years have more than doubled during the last decade, figures show.
The Times of London said that recent information presented to Britain's Liberal Democrats showed that between 1996-97 and 2005-06, the number of alcohol-related cirrhosis instances rose from 270 to 642.
During that same time period, the amount of overall cirrhosis cases rose from nearly 7,000 annually to more than 19,000 a year.
Royal College of Physicians President Ian Gilmore said that recent medical findings of increased final-stage cirrhosis in the age group suggest that the negative pattern is likely to rise further in the future.
Such findings prompted Sandra Gidley, the Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman, to criticize the current British healthcare system.
"Ministers should have woken up to this issue and taken action years ago," she told the paper.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International