Sharp increase in rate of deaths from liver disease

THE Irish are drinking themselves to death in ever greater numbers, according to a European study on liver disease.

Ireland is second only to Britain in the rate of increase of people dying from liver cirrhosis, which is mainly caused by long-term heavy drinking.

The disease killed 5.4 men and 3.9 women per 100,000 people in Ireland between 1957 and 1961. But 40 years later, between 1997 and 2001, the death rate for men had more than doubled to 11.1 and jumped to 6.5 for women.