WHO: One person dies every 40 seconds from suicide

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Worldwide, every 40 seconds a person takes their own life, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report on Monday.

"Despite progress, one person still dies every 40 seconds from suicide," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who heads the UN agency, was quoted as saying in the report.

"Every death is a tragedy for family, friends and colleagues. Yet suicides are preventable. We call on all countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programmes in a sustainable way," he added.

The report underlined that 800,000 people commit suicide across the world.

The report came a day before World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD), whose purpose is to raise global awareness that suicide is preventable.

According to the report, the number of countries with national suicide prevention strategies has grown in the five years since the publication of WHO’s first global report on suicide.

Suicide rates are highest in high-income countries, and internationally suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people, age 15-29, after road injury, it said.

"The most common methods of suicide are hanging, pesticide self-poisoning, and firearms," it said.

Restricting access to the means of committing suicide, educating the media on responsible reporting of suicide, programs to help young people build life skills, and early risk identification can help reduce suicides, it said.