The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the global financial crisis may spark a rise in mental illness and health problems as people turn to alcohol, tobacco and drugs to get through the downturn.
According to an AFP report, the WHO’s director-general, Margaret Chan, said at a conference examining the global crisis and its effects on health that this previous downturns had affected health in a variety of ways. "In times of economic crisis, people tend to forego private care and make more use of publicly financed services," she said, adding that many country's public health systems are already "overstretched and under-funded".
Chan also warned that periods of economic instability "increase the risk that people will neglect health care, with prevention falling by the wayside".
Richard Newfarmer, the World Bank's special representative to the UN and World Trade Organisation, said nearly 60 million people will be gripped by poverty if economic growth in developing countries halves during 2009. (pi)