Global depression? Suicide kills more people than wars and murders every year – WHO

by Akan Ido

Who would have thought there are more deaths globally due to suicides than from wars and murders put together yearly?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement on Friday indicating approximately one million people people die from suicides worldwide each year calling for urgent measures to be taken to curb the problem.

The statement read:

“Data from the WHO indicate that approximately one million people worldwide die by suicide each year. This corresponds to one death by suicide every 40 seconds.

“As suicide is largely preventable, it is imperative that governments, through their health, social and other relevant sectors, invest human and financial resources in suicide prevention.

According to Shekhar Saxena, who led the team of researchers looking into the societal menace, though suicide continues to be a phenomenon associated with wealthy societies, there have been a disturbing increase in the number of recorded cases in low income countries which are ill-equipped to deal with the problem.

The report added:

“Although suicide continues to remain a serious problem in high income countries, it is the low and middle income countries that bear the larger part of the global suicide burden.

“It is also these countries that are relatively less-equipped to prevent suicide”.

According to reports, the highest documented suicide rates are in Eastern European countries like Lithuania and Russia, while the lowest can be found in Latin America. The United States, Western European countries and Asia fall in the middle of the range.

At least 100,000 adolescents kill themselves each year, while among adults, the suicide rate is highest especially from the age of 75.

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