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A new study by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says that injury is a leading killer of children in Bangladesh, which accounts for 83 child deaths per day, reports UNB.
The UNICEF report found more than 30,000 children in Bangladesh who died in 2002 from drowning, transport accidents, falls, burns, animal bites and other injuries. That comes to 83 child deaths a day or three every hour.
UNICEF says injury has replaced disease as the major cause of death among children in the region and accounts for 38 per cent of all deaths aged between one and 17.
It says that the greatest killer, especially among very young children, is drowning. However, road accidents and suicide account for more deaths among adolescents.
UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh Morten Giersing, says this is a tragedy, which comes out of a success. "It is a success because when we now see that injury is becoming a very big killer in a country like Bangladesh which is still enormously poor, it is on the backdrop of great success in preventing diarrhoea deaths, in preventing what vaccines can do, what antibiotics can do. So, you have had those kinds of deaths coming down," he said.
This is the largest injury survey ever conducted at the community level in a developing country. In 2003, more than 0.17 million (170,000) households representing over 0.8 million (800,000) people were surveyed.
Similar, but smaller-scale injury surveys have been conducted in Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and China. UNICEF says these surveys also show that injury is a leading killer of children over one year of age in Asia.
UNICEF Senior Information Officer Shamsuddin Ahmed told the news agency that earlier there was a notion among the people that six killer diseases-DPT, diarrhoea, pneumonia, whooping cough, tetanus and measles cause most deaths of children, but the surveys show that the number one killer of children is injury.
Ahmed defines injury as unforeseen, accidental non-disease cause of mortality and morbidity of children.
UNICEF says governments must spend much more money on preventing injuries. It notes that fewer children are dying from killer diseases than before because governments have spent the money needed to produce this result.
It says deaths from injuries could also be dramatically brought down if similar investments were made in prevention and safety awareness programs.
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