"Despite progress, one person still dies every 40 seconds from suicide. Every death is a tragedy for family, friends and colleagues. Yet suicides are preventable. We call on all countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programmes in a sustainable way.” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization Director-General
While noting progress in the five years since the publication of the first WHO global report on suicide, only thirty-eight countries currently have a national suicide prevention strategy in place to prevent deaths. Though suicide rates vary widely between countries, the global age-standardized suicide rate was 10.5 per 100,000 in 2016. Suicide rates appear highest in high-income countries although seventy-nine percent of all suicides occur in middle- to low-income countries. Men are also three times as likely to commit suicide as women in high-income countries even though the gender disparity is more equal in poorer countries.
Suicide remains the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29 years (road injury is the leading cause). For girls in the 15-19 age range, only pregnancy-related medical conditions causes more deaths annually than suicide. For boys in that age range, suicide is the third leading cause of death (after road injury and interpersonal violence). Popular methods for committing suicide are hanging, pesticide self-poisoning, and using firearms and government programs have reported success in preventing death by restricting access to firearms and pesticides.
Given the toxicity of most pesticides used worldwide, they remain a popular choice due to their effectiveness and the lack of adequate medical services in many places. This means that deliberate suicide attempts are often fatal whether or not self-poisoners intended to kill themselves. In a report recently released by the WHO titled Preventing suicide: a resource for pesticide registrars and regulators, numerous research studies have demonstrated prohibiting the use of highly hazardous pesticides can lead to reductions in national suicide rates.
In Sri Lank, for example, government bans on pesticides have led to a 70% fall in suicides and an estimated 93 000 lives saved between 1995 and 2015. Paraquat remains a particularly popular choice for suicide in many parts of Asia and accounted for most suicide deaths in the Republic of Korea during the 2000s. Since the Korean government imposed a ban on paraquat in 2011-2012, the rate of suicide deaths from pesticide poisoning has dropped by half between 2011 and 2013.
Even as progress is being made, tracking suicide rates remains a major problem in many countries. Only 80 of the 183 WHO Member States provide reliable data concerning suicide rates, largely due to the lack of a strong medical infrastructure as well as the stigma that continues to surround suicide worldwide.
Aided by international partners such as World Federation for Mental Health, the International Association for Suicide Prevention and United for Global Mental Health, the WHO launched the 40 Seconds of Action Campaign which culminated on October 10 which is World Mental Health Day. By working together to help prevent suicide, the WHO and its supporters are hoping for a better future for everyone.
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