Drink-related deaths rocket in men

Deaths from alcohol-related liver disease have more than doubled among middle-aged men in the last decade, researchers reveal today.

As George Best recovers from his life-saving liver transplant, new figures show a huge rise in men of his age who are dying from the effects of excessive drinking.

Best, 56, underwent the transplant after collapsing with cirrhosis of the liver two years ago. Doctors told him years of heavy drinking had irreparably damaged his liver, and he would die if he drank again.

About 4,000 people a year die from cirrhosis of the liver in Britain, and half of all cases are related to alcohol.

Researchers from Imperial College, London studied figures from the Office for National Statistics between 1993 and 1999.

They found deaths from alcoholrelated liver damage rocketed by 259 per cent among men aged 40-59 over that period.

Two thirds of all deaths from alcohol-related liver disease are in the under-65 age group. All other age groups saw big rises, though not as high as among middle-aged men.

The UK's mortality rate from liver disease - seven people per 100,000 - is below the EU average of nine per 100,000, but experts are concerned UK deaths are rising at the same rate the European average is falling.

The Imperial College study also found drug abuse may be to blame for increased liver disease. Widespread heroin use in the past 30 years may have led to more people being infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) from dirty needles.

Someone with HCV who also drinks is 31 times more likely to develop cirrhosis than a teetotaller. One third of patients with alcoholic liver disease are infected with HCV, the study said. Report author Professor John Henry said: "This [men aged 40-59] is a cohort that would have been involved in the epidemic of illicit drug use which took hold in the Seventies and Eighties.

The rising mortality rates for alcohol-related diseases are best explained by rapidly progressive fatal liver disease in drinkers with HCV infection."

Professor Henry called for more HCV testing and better counselling to warn of the risks of drinking.

Experts have also blamed the rise in liver disease on heavier drinking by young adults. Last year the UK's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, reported that in 2000, cirrhosis killed 470 men and 288 women under 44 in England - 10 times the rate in 1970.

Of those aged 45 to 64, 1,500 men and 769 women died from cirrhosis in that year.

Some 27 per cent of men and 14 per cent of women admit to drinking more than the recommended weekly maximum.