By Valentia Tetteh
Health Workers have raised concerns about the increase in childhood burns reported at health facilities in the country. With only three burn intensive care units in the country, plastic surgeons are worried that the facilities at the units are overstretched, hence the need for more education on basic safety measures, especially at home.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that burn injuries account for 180,000 deaths annually and are the fifth most common cause of non-fatal childhood injuries.
Research from the health sector shows that children account for almost half of the population that presents with severe burn injuries at health facilities. Children under 5 years account for 50 to 80% of all childhood burns. In Ghana, 92% of pediatric burns occur in homes, 51% in the kitchen, and 36% within the compound. And this is more prevalent in rural communities.
In an interview with GBConline, Head of Plastic and Constructive Surgery Unit at the University of Ghana Medical Centre, Dr. Papa Kwesi Fiifi-Yankson, says he witnesses more than one hundred childhood burns cases in a year.
“The cases I mostly handle are often children within the ages of 5-8 years. During the COVID era, we had a lot of children also getting burns from mismanagement of sanitizers. They play with sanitizers, light fire around them and they get burned.”
Dr. Samuel Prince Nuamah is the vice president of the Public Health Alliance International Ghana (PHAIG) against childhood burns. “twenty percent of children who are admitted at the hospital as a result of burns do not make it out. which means they die in the hospital. so, we felt that this was quite alarming.”
He said it was due to such reasons that the Public Health Alliance International Ghana (PHAIG) decided to come up with an initiative known as the “Pediatric Burns Campaign” to prevent and counter the devastating effects of burn injuries among children in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.
Currently, there are only 3 major Burns centres in the country- the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Tamale Teaching Hospital.
According to Dr. Papa Kwesi Yankson, at these centres, the focus is more on treatment than rehabilitation, leaving many victims to deal with the physical and psychological effects of their injuries.
The Burn Intensive Care Unit (BICU) Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, which opened in February 2001, has only eight beds with three surgeons and three specialised burn ward nurses.
Mr. Alfred Donkor is a parent whose child was receiving medical treatment at the Komfo Anokye teaching hospital. He said his son got burnt when hot water poured on him from the kettle. “A kettle of hot water was ready for him to take his bath. He accidentally slipped and fell into the hot water.”
Dr. Fiifi-Yankson cited lack of basic education on safety precautions as factors for the high prevalence of burns among children. He called on individuals and corporate institutions to adopt fire safety measures to prevent accidents. He also appealed to caretakers and Grandmothers to properly mix warm water to bathe infants to avoid them suffering from burns.