Belgians among biggest medicine consumers in Europe

The average Belgian consumes 40,000 drugs throughout his life, according to Lieven Annemans, a health researcher from the Belgian University of Ghent. On average a Belgian consumes 1.3 drugs each day and this increases with age, the researcher told the Belgian daily De Morgen on Saturday. "The older we get, the more we swallow," he said. A 14-year-old's average is 0.3, a 75-year-old absorbs four medicines daily. "We swallow too many drugs too much compared to the rest of Europe," Annemans said noting that consumption is 30% higher in average compared to other European countries. He noted that here is too much focus on the price of medication, and not on the volume of consumption. The Belgian Minister of Public Health, Laurette Onkelinx, was quoted saying that projects are in preparation to counter this phenomenon.