Bulgaria Among Countries with Lowest Suicide Rates – WHO

Society » HEALTH | September 10, 2014, Wednesday // 16:10
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Among Countries with Lowest Suicide Rates – WHO File photo.

The World Health Organization has released a global report on suicide prevention and it shows that each year more than 800,000 people take their own lives — about one person every 40 seconds.

“This report is a call for action to address a large public health problem which has been shrouded in taboo for far too long,” said WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan in a statement.

In richer countries, three times as many men die of suicide than women do, but in low- and middle-income countries the male-to-female ratio is much lower at 1.5 men to each woman. With regard to age, suicide rates are highest in persons aged 70 years or over for both men and women in almost all regions of the world.

According to the global suicide statistics, the United States along with countries such as Australia, Spain and much of Europe has rates between 10 and 14.9 per 100,000 which is about average worldwide, while the nations of Guyana, North and South Korea have the highest rates.

Bulgaria falls into a subcategory of European countries with low- and middle- income, which is actually among the groups recording the lowest levels of suicide attempts - 4.3% of all. Suicide in this category in 2012 accounted for 12 out of 100 thousand people, as the number for men is four times higher than that for women.

'No matter where a country currently stands in suicide prevention, effective measures can be taken, even just starting at local level and on a small scale,' said Alexandra Fleischmann from WHO's department of mental health and substance abuse.

Other preventative measures include encouraging responsible reporting of suicide in the media, such as avoiding language that sensationalizes suicide.

The WHO report was published ahead of world suicide prevention day on September 10.

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Tags: report, WHO, World Health Organization, suicide prevention, Bulgaria

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