Health Week starts in Gomel oblast

Today Health Week has started in Gomel oblast. This year it is held under the motto ‘Young people against addictions’, BelTA was informed in the oblast center for hygiene, epidemiology and public health, an initiator of the event. This year the week runs from 10 to 14th October. The center for hygiene, epidemiology and public health will organize meetings with specialists, put in action telephone hotlines, present programs on raising the profile of healthy lifestyle with the help of youth organization. Every day of the week is dedicated to a specific issue. The tropical ones are the issues on alcohol and drug abuse and nicotine addiction. The week was opened with a roundtable discussion highlighting the issues on the wide spread of narcotic and psychotropic substances among young people. The sitting “Future without drugs” gathered together representatives of the healthcare service, law enforcement bodies and clergymen. According to chief doctor of the Gomel oblast narcological center Vitold Tumelevich, more than 80 per cent of drug addicts are young people under 30. The number of abusers of narcotic and psychotropic substances has been steadily increasing. Teenage hemp abuse has become a serious problem in the oblast. Cases when children under ten were caught abusing this herb were registered. The participants of the round-table discussion came to a conclusion that a positive result can be achieved only by binding efforts and using new methods. A fashion of being healthy should become one of the main tendencies to prevent drug abuse and other addictions. According to the specialists, in order to divert young people from drugs, alcohol and cigarettes proper conditions for organizing their leisure and keeping them busy should be created.