South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU): key alcohol and drug abuse trends: July-December 2000

Abstract

The SACENDA Project, an alcohol and other drug (AOD) sentinel surveillance system operational in Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Gauteng (Johannesburg / Pretoria. The system, initiated in 1996, monitors trends in AOD use and associated consequences on a six monthly bases using multi-source information from specialist treatment centres (50+), psychiatric hospitals, mortuaries, trauma units, the Police (SA Narcotics Bureau, Organised Crime Unites & Forensic Science Laboratories), and from research conducted in schools and with sex workers, street children, persons attending primary health care clinics, arrestees, and persons attending rave parties. Key findings are that the proportion of patients under 20 years has increased substantially over time (eg. in Cape Town from 6% in 1996 to 24% in 2000 and in Gauteng from 11% in 1998 to 18% in 2000.