Mandy Weiner speaks to the director of the South African Medical Research Council's Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit professor Charles Parry on what we can learn from the Enyobeni Tavern tragedy where twenty-one children died.
These findings were released in a South African study published this week
However, in a potential third wave, one of the authors of the study believes less intrusive measures could also be effective
The nationwide alcohol sales ban during previous Covid lockdowns in South Africa led to a significant decrease in the number of trauma cases in the Worcester Regional Hospital in the Western Cape – followed by a resurgence when the ban was lifted, a study published on Monday showed.
However, only complete bans appeared to be valuable in freeing up medical resources. When researchers looked at the patterns of hospital use, partial bans didn t make any statistical difference,
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
The second Covid-19 wave has receded, prompting the unbanning of the sale of alcohol. There is scant data available showing exactly how the ban affected hospital emergency units during the second wave, but the little that there is suggests it had a similar impact during both waves. Though the short-term objective might have been achieved, a sustainable reduction in alcohol-related trauma cases is more elusive.
It has been repeated by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize that the ban on the sale of alcohol decreased the burden of trauma cases on hospitals in the second wave of Covid-19, just as it had during the first.