70pc burns’ victims are children under five: official data

ISLAMABAD: About seven out of 10 victims of burn injuries in Pakistan are children under the age of five and over 65,000 minors have been brought for treatment to Burns Center at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) alone during last 10 years, a senior official said.
According to its director, PIMS Burns Care Centre (BCC) has managed 94,664 patients since its inception in 2007 and over 70% of the burns victims were minors.
Major reasons for alarming number of paediatric burn injuries include floor kitchens in poor households, careless parenting and low quality gas appliances, says Prof Dr Tariq Iqbal, Director of BCC at PIMS. He said paediatric burns can be prevented by education of families and by practicing strict safety protocols.
“A very important preventive step is to create public awareness to avoid dangerous practices at home and work places and introduction of strict safety protocols for all gas and electric appliances as data shows that 99 per cent of burns are accidental,” he said.
According to Burn Centre data of last 10 year, 51% injuries were caused by flame burns, followed by scalds and hot vapours which account for 28.5 % burn injuries. Electric burns were a reason behind 7.7 cases brought to the BCC, while fireworks and blasts caused six per cent burn injuries out of total 94,664 cases managed at the centre.
Prof Iqbal who is internationally known burns surgeon and pioneer of burns centre at PIMS has stressed the need for strict regulation for appliance industry and introduction of safety measures to decrease the incidents of burn injuries in children as well as adults. “The number of burns victims in Pakistan is alarming if we compare it to the developed world. There is need for public awareness as well as government measures to reduce such incidents especially when the country lacks treatment facilities for burns patients,” Dr Iqbal said. Out of 8,330 patients admitted to the BCC annually about 2,165 or 26% die of their injuries, he said, adding that there is need for coordination on the part of stakeholders to reduce burns related deaths and injuries.
He said the BCC at PIMS--a 20-bed facility--is providing free of cost burn treatment to patients with lowest mortality rate in the country.
“This is the first and till date the only facility of its kind in the public sector of Pakistan. It receives patients from Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and even Afghanistan as there is no such facility available in that country with trained doctors and state of the art equipments.”
However, he said the facility is not able to cater to the needs of growing number of burns victims in the country.
He said there is dire need to upgrade the existing infrastructure of burns facilities across the country and establish burns centres in all major cities along with teaching hospitals and burns units of 4-8 bed in all Tehsil Headquarters Hospitals with dedicated staff and budget.
There is also need to ensure availability of special emergency burn dressing at all emergency departments of all hospitals and with rescue teams and the staff working at burns centers must be given financial incentives according to their workload.
He said Pakistan has the highest incidents of high voltage electric burn in the region just because many high tension lines are passing over crowded residential areas.
To gather all stakeholders and raise awareness about burn injuries PIMS Burns Centre is hosting first International Burns Conference in Pakistan next month. The conference will prepare recommendations for the government and discuss modern developments in treatment of burn patients, Prof Tariq said.