Financial crisis may be bad for health: WHO

[LahoreEstate]

GENEVA (January 20 2009): The World Health Organisation warned Monday the global financial crisis may spark a rise in mental illness and health problems as people turn to alcohol, tobacco and drugs to get through the downturn. "This has happened in the past," said the UN agency's Director-General Margaret Chan at the launch of a conference on the financial crisis' effects on health.

"In times of economic crisis, people tend to forego private care and make more use of publicly financed services," she said, adding that many country's public health systems are already "over stretched and under funded." Chan also warned that periods of economic instability "increases the risk that people will neglect health care, with prevention falling by the wayside."

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