5.8 million die of injuries yearly, says WHO

No fewer than 5.8 million people die yearly from injuries suffered in accidents, the World Health Organisation has said.

According to the President, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD),National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos (NOHIL), Dr Shopekhai Itakpe, 90 per cent of the casualty figure is from Nigeria and other low and medium income countries.

He added: “The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) also identified injuries as the main cause of death that people from one to 44 years, in its last report. Of the figures, it said, road traffic injuries kill an estimated 1.3 million people yearly, stressing that it would become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.”

For these reasons, the ARD, focused its yearly scientific conference on emergency trauma care, to gain insight into its challenges and proffer way forward.

It advocated prevention rather than cure to address the problem which has orphaned many children and cut many lives of bread winners short.

The experts drew their conclusion at the yearly scientific conference of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos (NOHIL).

Their resolve was borne out of the urgency to reduce the number of admissions in hospital due to recurring incidences of accidents in Nigeria, particularly on the roads.

Although, accidents happen every day, the majority of them were due to the carelessness of the people, experts said at yearly scientific conference of the ARD, NOHIL. It is with the theme Emergency trauma care in Nigeria.

According to Head, Accident and Emergency Surgery, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Olakunle Badmus, it is a wake-up call for professionals in the trauma care system to help reduce accidents and improve the trauma care system. This, he said, would be achieved by suggesting accident prevention and prompt emergency response.

He charged trauma care system experts, police, Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA), and traffic wardens whose job is to redirect and control traffic, call ambulances for victims and ensure compliance to road safety rules, to do more.

Drawing comparison of emergency trauma care in Nigeria with other developed countries, he said, the latter were far beyond the former, which he noted, was below par.

Hope, however, he said, was not lost if professionals in trauma care system could advocate accident prevention, because “prevention is better than cure”. He said measures, such as enlightenment, enforcement and engineering should be employed to reduce it.
by wale Adepoju(The Nation)