WHO alarmed at youth binge drinking 

The problem of youth binge drinking is being thrashed out at a World Health Organisation conference in Auckland.

For the first time, the WHO is meeting to come up with a strategy to reduce alcohol harm, which is responsible for 5.5% of all disease and injury in Asia and the Pacific compared to just 4% globally.

China has seen youth drinking rates skyrocket 500% in the past two decades.

Dr Wang Xiangdong of the WHO says in some mental hospitals 60% to 80% of the beds are used for treatment for alcohol-related disorders.

Seventy percent of sexual assaults are linked to alcohol in some Pacific Island nations.

Drinking among young people, particularly among young women, is a problem everywhere now, says Dr Vladimir Poznyak of the WHO.

The WHO says alcohol is now public health enemy number two, behind tobacco, and too few countries are geared up to deal with the fallout.

"Even in many developed countries the range of services available for people with alcohol use disorders is not very broad," says Poznyak.

But officials in New Zealand say this country's biggest battle is still the persistent drinking culture.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield of the Ministry of Health says New Zealand has a high level of condoning, or approving intoxication as a norm.

The WHO's growing alarm about a rising youth binge drinking culture, comes as New Zealand is debating the effects of lowering the drinking age.

A bill on the issue is before the Law and Order Select Committee, which is due to report back to parliament next month.