More than 2000 children die every day as a result of unintentional or accidental injuries, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation and Unicef.
The
World report on child injury preventionreveals that if proven prevention measures were adopted at least 1000 children's lives could be saved worldwide each day.
The report reveals that in addition to the huge numbers of children who die as a result of unintentional or accident injuries, tens of millions more are taken to hospitals every day with injuries that often leave them with lifelong disabilities.
Five out of six childhood deaths from injuries occur in poor countries, but the risk can be equally high for children living in poverty in affluent countries.
Africa has the highest rate overall for unintentional injury deaths. The study indicates that the death rate is 10 times higher in Africa than in high-income countries in Europe and the Western Pacific such as Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom, which have the lowest rates of child injury.
In Europe, death rates for unintentional injuries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are declining, but are still three times those in the European Union.
However, the report finds that although many high-income countries have been able to reduce their child injury deaths by up to 50 per cent over the past 30 years, the issue remains a problem for many of them, with unintentional injuries accounting for 40 per cent of all child deaths in such countries.
A poor child living in the suburbs of an affluent western metropolis, such as London or Paris, might have the same risk of injury as one living in a country with developing economy, according to the study.
An unsafe environment contains major risk factors as poor children may be exposed to fast traffic, lack of safe areas to play and crowded homes with unsafe structures, such as stairs without rails or gates or windows without bars and locks. Poorer families may also not be able to afford safety equipment such as child restraints for cars, smoke alarms or bicycle helmet and supervision may be difficult in families with a single parent or affected by alcohol or drug abuse. Once injured, poorer children may have less access to high-quality medical and rehabilitation services.
Globally, unintentional injuries kill 830, 000 children every year.
In Europe, such injuries are responsible for an annual 42 000 injury deaths in people aged under 20 years and 70 million hospital admissions and visits to emergency departments.
The report finds that the top five causes of injury deaths glbally are:
* Road crashes:They kill 260 000 children a year and injure about 10 million. They are the leading cause of death among 10-19 year olds and a leading cause of child disability.
* Drowning:It kills more than 175 000 children a year. Every year, up to 3 million children survive a drowning incident. Due to brain damage in some survivors, non-fatal drowning has the highest average lifetime health and economic impact of any injury type.
* Burns:Fire-related burns kill nearly 96 000 children a year and the death rate is 11 times higher in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
* Falls:Nearly 47 000 children fall to their deaths every year, but hundreds of thousands more sustain less serious injuries from a fall.
* Poisoning:More than 45 000 children die each year from unintended poisoning.
