More than 2,000 children were killed in accidents or died of unintentional injury every day, while tens of millions of children were left with life-long disabilities every year, a latest report of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says.
"Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of childhood death after the age of nine years and that 95 percent of these child injuries occur in developing countries. More must be done to prevent such harm to children," a press release of Manila-based WHO Western Pacific Regional Office quoted UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman as saying on Wednesday.
She said the World Report on Child Injury Prevention, done by collaboration of 180 experts around the globe, finds road crashes, drowning, burns, falls, and poisoning are the top five causes of injury deaths.
According to the report, as the leading cause of death among 10-19 year-olds, road accidents kill 260,000 children every year while injuring about 10 million.
Africa has the highest rate overall for unintentional injury deaths. The report finds the rate is ten 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.
"Child injuries are an important public health and development issue. In addition to the 830,000 deaths every year, millions of children suffer non-fatal injuries that often require long-term hospitalization and rehabilitation," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.
She said children in poorer families and communities are at increased risk of injury because they are less likely to benefit from prevention programs and high quality health services.
The report said such tragedies can be reduced by half by the implementation of a string of precaution measures that include laws on child-appropriate seat belts and helmets, separate traffic lanes for motorcycles or bicycles, redesigning nursery furniture, toys and playground equipment and strengthening emergency medical care and rehabilitation services.
Source:Xinhua
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