Campaign against burn injuries on children launched
A multi-disciplinary team of public health professionals and consultants have put up a campaign on the devastating effects of burn injuries on children in the country.
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The one-year Paediatric Burns Campaign is targeted at children under five years in rural and semi-urban areas where such incidents are alarmingly high.
The campaign would kick-start on February 24, 2024, with a pre-launch that would see relevant stakeholders discuss and deploy themselves into various communities in the country to educate people on burns and fire safety, as well as get experts to train health workers on how to properly manage burn cases that were brought to their facilities.
The campaign is an initiative of Public Health Alliance International Ghana (PHAIG), an NGO focused on healthcare challenges in the country and sub-Saharan Africa.
Objectives
The Vice-President of PHAIG, Dr Samuel Nuamah, said it was aimed at significantly reducing the incidence of paediatric burns, counter practices that exposed children to such injuries and also promoting awareness of child safety, supervision and paediatric burns management.
He said as an organisation, they normally sourced information from health professionals and facilities to know what their problems were and which ones were easy to tackle.
Dr Nuamah said it was during such engagements that they learnt that child burns or paediatric burns had become an issue in the country.
“It was quite alarming to learn from them that 20 per cent of children who got admitted to various hospitals did not make it back home with their parents,” he said.
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Describing paediatric burns as the third leading preventable cause of child mortality in the country, Dr Nuamah said it was a public health issue that needed immediate attention.
He mentioned risk factors for paediatric burn injuries to include negligence on the part of caregivers, poor storage of flammable products and some equipment deployed at home such as water heaters, cooking stoves, kettles and other electrical appliances.
Advice
Dr Nuamah advised parents to monitor their children closely, especially in the kitchen, where according to figures available, 92 per cent of burn injuries among children occurred.
He urged them to also have a close eye on children with special needs such as epileptics and those with Downs syndrome.
Dr Nuamah also appealed to development partners such as UNICEF and the World Health Organisation to join the campaign.