'Accidents eating up India's young population'

Varanasi, Dec 29: The deadly vortex of accidents -- road and burn related deaths -- is eating up the young and productive population of the country, a Mumbai based surgeon specialising in trauma cases said here today.

''Be it road accidents or burn injuries, both are prime causes behind the untimely deaths of young and most productive population in the country,'' Head of Surgery Department at the LTMG Hospital and Medical College, Mumbai, Madhuri A Gore told newspersons here.

Prof Gore is in the city to attend ASICON -- 2006, the national conference of Association of Surgeons of India (ASI) underway at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Those aged between 20 and 40 years represent over 60 per cent of fatalities in road accidents across the country, with violation of traffic rules, especially non-usage of helmets and drunken driving being the main causes behind the dreadful phenomenon.

Among the young victims of road accident being brought to the our hospital with specialisation in dealing with trauma cases, 60 per cent pertained to head injuries, 35 per cent with multiple injuries and the remaining being of chest wounds. ''But by the time majority of them reach a specialised trauma centre they have already died,'' Prof Gore added.

''At least 30 per cent road accident deaths can be prevented if prelimnary facilities of dealing with such cases are put in place at the primary health centres, which are the first place where an accident case is rushed to,'' she maintained.

Prof Gore who presented a paper on 'Burn wound management' at ASICON yesterday said burn injuries also were eating up the younger population of the country, especially women, with five to seven million cases being reported annually. Out of these two million patients, primarily women aged between 20 and 35 years, succumb to burn injuries, she added.

Prof Gore further said that 40 per cent cases of burns among women are intentional especially suicides, while remaining 60 per cent are accidental especially occuring due to unsafe cooking practices.

''Women cooking the food on the floor are vulnerable to burn related accidents,'' she claimed.

Demanding a National Policy for Prevention of Burns to save the young female population of the country, Prof Gore said that such a policy was needed to create awareness among women about safe cooking practices and the setting up of a safe kitchen to address the major problem.

UNI