Editorial

Children injuries are one of the extensive problems in nowadays medicine that requires vigorous and preventive actions. The world's fatal road accident takes place on average every fifty seconds, and every two seconds it causes damage in humans. Mortality due to injuries permanent in road accidents is 2.2% of all deaths worldwide. Road accidents consume more deaths than wars. And make millions of people handicapped. The economic consequences of such a large number of fatal accidents and injuries leading to disability are significant. In many countries costs of road accidents consume from 1.5 to 2% of gross domestic product, and some exceed the value of international aid [1,2].

Injury together with violence is a major reason of fatality, resulting in about 950,000 deaths in children and young people under the age of 18 years every year. Unintentional injury-accounts for about 60% of all child deaths in the world. Other unintentional injury account for 23% of childhood deaths. It is well known that children in poorer countries and those from poorer families are the most vulnerable. The rate of child injury death is 3.4 times higher in low-income and middle-income, than in high-income countries. The child-injury pyramid showed that for each child under 19 years of age who was fatally injured, 45 children required hospitalization and a further 1,300 needed medical care at outpatient emergency clinics. Non-fatal injury not only causes suffering but also cause financial burden for the health care system. It is also worth to note that, 50% of those under 12 years of age who were seen in emergency departments remained with some form of disabilities, having impact on their own lives as well as on members of their families and of the society. It is due to their inability to worship school, find proper work or engage in an active social life [3].

The need for preventive measures in order to reduce the number of road accidents is indisputable yet at present it seems impossible to eliminate road accidents entirely. Therefore whole communities and those in charge of rescue systems should focus their activities on the improvement of saving lives on the site of a road accident to reduce the number of fatalities or to limit the extent of post-traumatic disabilities.

Proper coordination of activities on the site of a road accident is mainly possible due to regular training including the specificity of tasks of every service and the possibility of cooperation in emergency situations.

Since each child in the world has a right to live in a safe environment and to be protected from injury and violence there are many issues to resolve in order to prevent child injury. It is also a matter of improvement globally of child health by putting these issues into child health strategies and child survival programmes that should include: legislation, regulation and their enforcement; product modification; environmental modification; supportive home visit; the promotion of safety devices and education and teaching of skills [4,5].

It is very important to accept the fact that an injury is not the result of random, uncontrolled factors. Injuries are preventable. This is the public health obligation to collect data and analyze risk factors. Just like intervention and implement proven prevention method. Injury as an issue to be solved should be discussed not only on global but also national and local level. Every country should develop its own action plan involving also different bodies and agencies, just like nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions and industry. Preventing child injury is also very cost effective from the point of view countries economy. It is also absolutely necessary to realize that unless injury prevention is included in health care programs for children, the impact of the large investment in immunization, nutrition and maternal care may be lost due to number of unintentional injury or death. Having that information in mind one might hope that necessary activities mentioned above may be taken into the account and as a result the number if killed and injured children will decrease each year’s around the world [6].

References

1. Brussoni M, Olsen LL, Pike I, Sleet DA(2012) Risky Play And Children's Safety: Balancing Priorities For Optimal Child Development.Int J Environ Res Public Health  9:3134-3148.
2. Borgman MA, Maegele M, Wade CE, Blackbourne LH, Spinella PC (2011) Pediatric Trauma BIG Score: Predicting Mortality In Children After Military And Civilian Trauma. Pediatrics  127:e892-e897.
3. Little H, Wyver S (2010) Individual Differences In Children's Risk Perception And Appraisals In Outdoor Play Environments. International Journal of Early Years Education  18:297-313.
4. Desapriya E, Sones M, RamanzinT, Weinstein S, Scime G, et al. (2011) Injury Prevention In Child Death Review: Child Pedestrian Fatalities.Injury Prevention 17:i4-9.
5. Peden M (2008) World Report On Child Injury Prevention Appeals To "Keep Kids Safe". InjPrev14:413-414.
6. Goniewicz K, Goniewicz M, Pawłowski W, Fiedor P(2016) Road Accident Rates: Strategies And Programmes For Improving Road Traffic Safety. Eur J Trauma EmergSurg42:433-438.