New measures to prevent child injuries debated Posted: Sep 09,2009
Effective measures to reduce injuries to children were put forward at a symposium in northern mountainous Dien Bien province, which came to a close on Aug. 28.
At the two-day symposium on child injury prevention, the participants underlined the necessity to introduce new legislation and a mechanism to facilitate joint action between the relevant ministries on child protection, care and education issues.
It is necessary to combine child injury prevention targets with the nation’s socio-economic development strategy, they said.
They also emphasised that funding should be made available to monitor and assess the governments performance on child injury prevention as well as raising the awareness of medical and cultural workers.
Along with building a safer community and preventing injuries to children, the responsibilities of the ministries and authorities involved in this field should be separated and defined more clearly.
In the context of national industrialisation, modernisation, the renewal process and the country’s ecological environment since the end of the war, child injuries are unavoidable, reported the symposium.
Each year nearly 90 percent of injuries to children are accidents, of which 26 percent are traffic accidents while drowning accounts for 39.2 percent.
Unexploded ordnance, natural disasters, poisoning, insect bites and suicide are the main reasons for deaths in children, it said./.
