South Africa's wine country fights alcoholism scourge
Healthcare workers struggle to change binge-drinking culture in a region that has the world's highest recorded levels of fetal alcohol syndrome.
from the April 12, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
The habit of binge drinking is now ingrained in South African culture at all social levels, researchers say. In the Northern Cape town of De Aar, the rate of FAS babies is 122 per 1,000 live births, according to recent research by the Medical Research Council in Cape Town. By contrast, FAS levels in the US are between 0.1 per 1,000 and 0.67 per 1,000.
"There's a tolerance of drinking in South Africa, not only among the uneducated; it's right through our culture," says Ms. Olivier. Unfortunately, she says, there is little recognition that alcohol can be damaging to a woman's fetus.
"The aim is to change behavior, provide logical information for the mothers. If we can catch them when they become pregnant, at least we can still do something. After they become pregnant, the damage is done."
The solution seems clear-cut: Provide counseling about the dangers of drinking for women of child-bearing age through medical clinics; run public information campaigns on billboards and Television; and put warning labels on bottles of spirits.
But Sandra Marais, a senior researcher for the Medical Research Council, and professor at the University of South Africa in Cape Town, says that South Africa is far behind in recognizing the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome and doing something about it.
"If you have several brief interventions with a birth mother, usually at a health clinic, to give women information on how drinking can affect a baby's health, that is where you have to start, where you can make a difference," says Dr. Marais.
But when Marais and her colleagues asked health clinic workers if they would try out a simple questionnaire with birth mothers, "they were willing, but they felt they didn't have the time," she says. "When you have a waiting room full of people, and you have a questionnaire in front of you, even the most experienced clinic workers will rush through it. It all depends on how it is done."
Wine companies look for solutions
But while the government hospitals and clinics may be feeling overstretched – understandably so, in a country that has the largest number of AIDS patients in the world – the wine industry itself is starting to pitch in to find solutions, and to prevent FAS.
Beyerskloof Vineyards, the premier winery using indigenous pinotage grapes, is the first vineyard in South Africa to put labels on their bottles – a common practice elsewhere – warning pregnant women of the dangers of drinking. The founder, Beyers Truter, has also established a foundation, the Fetal Alcoholism and Interrelated Treatment Help Fund (FAITH) to raise funds for research, for information campaigns, and for smaller charities that help communities affected by FAS.
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