Child injury prevention programme on cards

The pilot prevention programme will address home safety, school safety and community safety of the children.

This was stated by the speakers at a roundtable on 'Child Injury Prevention in Bangladesh: Prospects and Challenges' at Brac Centre Inn in the city.

It was jointly organised by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh (CIPRB), Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Unicef.

The speakers said the programme will include assessment of injury risk at home and counselling by household members to improve the home environment and introduction of safety devices appropriate to age and local conditions.

The pilot programme will be implemented by the CIPRB and US-based TASC in collaboration with the government and Unicef.

The speakers said while neonatal deaths and infectious diseases remain major concerns for child survival, child health programmes in Bangladesh cannot be considered complete without injury prevention at the core.

Quoting the data of Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey (BHIS) they said some 2,600 children get injured everyday and of them 80 succumb to their injuries.

The injuries are mainly caused by road accident, drowning, animal bite, fall from different places, accidental poisoning, cut by sharp objects and suffocation.

Speaking as chief guest Unicef Representative Morten Giersing said, " Injury is a leading killer of children over the age in this country and it is time that we look at interventions which could slow the injury epidemic."

Stressing the need for multi-sectoral involvement for the intervention, he said the government bodies and NGO's have to work together for the intervention.

TASC President Pete Peterson, Prof Hannana Begum of National Curriculum and Textbook Board, Dr Siddiqur Rahman and AKM Shamsuddin of DGHS, Prof Amjad Hossain of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Prof MK Talukdar of Bangladesh Breast Feeding Foundation, Rezaul Karim and Khairuzzaman of Brac took part in the discussion.