‘2,000 kids die every day due to injuries’

By M H Ahssan

Injury — unintentional or because of accidents — has become the world’s latest epidemic to affect children.

In the first comprehensive global assessment of unintentional childhood injuries, World Health Organisation (WHO) has made a chilling revelation — 8.3 lakh children are dying every year across the world to such preventable injuries. According to the report, car crashes, drowning, burn injuries, petty falls and poisoning together kill 2,000 children every day.

Road crashes have been found to be the biggest killers with 2.6 lakh children dying of it every year and another 10 million getting injured. They are also the leading cause of death among 10-19-year-olds and a leading cause of child disability. Episodes of drowning is also common in under five-year-olds, killing 1.75 lakh children every year, almost 480 lives every day. Three million children, however, survive a drowning incident.

Fire-related burns kill nearly 96,000 children a year and the death rate is 11 times higher in low-and middle-income countries. A simple fall has also been found to be fatal. Nearly 47,000 children — 130 every day — fall to their death every year, but hundreds of thousands more, sustain less serious injuries from a fall. According to the report, 66% of fatal falls are the result of falls from a height.

Unintended poisoning too has been identified as a major killer with over 45,000 children dying each year of it. “Child injuries are an important public health concern. The cost of treatment can throw an entire family into poverty. Children in poorer families are at increased risk of injury because they are less likely to benefit from prevention programmes,” said WHO director-general Dr Margaret Chan.

UNICEF executive director Ann M Veneman added, “This report shows that unintentional injuries are the leading cause of childhood death after the age of nine years and that 95% of these child injuries occur in developing countries. More must be done to prevent such harm to children.”

“Improvements can be made in all countries,” said Dr Etienne Krug, director of WHO’s department of violence and injury prevention and disability. “When a child is left disfigured by a burn, paralysed by a fall, brain damaged by a near drowning or emotionally traumatised by any such serious incident, the effects can reverberate through the child’s life. Each such tragedy is unnecessary. We have enough evidence about what works.”

According to WHO, a set of prevention programmes should be implemented in all countries, which include laws on child-appropriate seatbelts and helmets, child-resistant closures on medicine bottles and playground equipment.