As the burden of injury and violence continues to grow across our Region practitioners, policy makers and health officials are meeting to cooperate on and accelerate prevention efforts not only in Vietnam but for the region as a whole.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) joined the Ministry of Health to support the hosting of the 2nd Asia Pacific Injury Prevention Conference.
Injuries still rank among the leading causes of death in Vietnam and the Asia-Pacific region with
An estimated 3.1 million injury-related deaths occur in the region each year.
“This means that during the three days of this conference more than 25,000 people will die from injuries and violence," said Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, in Hanoi to open the Conference.
"Each of these deaths is tragic, but hundreds of thousands more victims survive, often suffering lifelong disability.
“Most injuries and violence are a preventable public health issue and by increasing our efforts and attention towards prevention strategies, many of these heartbreaking outcomes could be avoided,” Dr Omi said.
The costs of injury and violence to the health sector and society at large are estimated at billions of dollars each year.
“The majority of the burden falls on the most vulnerable groups - the elderly, the socially and economically disadvantaged, and especially on children,” said Jesper Morch, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative to Viet Nam.
“Injuries at the moment represent a major risk to the survival and development of children, and could seriously impact the tremendous progress Viet Nam has made in reducing infant and child mortality rates. Injuries and violence also place increasing demands on already overstretched health systems. The priority must be to strengthen primary prevention efforts"
Experience from high income countries has shown how cost-effective interventions can be applied and these interventions can save not only lives but also costs to society.
In addition to providing emergency care and rehabilitation, the health sector can coordinate or support a multi-sectoral response to preventing injuries and violence through a public health approach.
The objectives of this conference are to identify long-term policy solutions and practices for injury and violence prevention as well as strategic development of public health capacity for implementation of good practice for injury prevention in the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide.
This forum will provide an important opportunity for national and international agencies and organizations, working in the field of injury and violence prevention to share success stories and lessons learnt relating to policy and intervention implementation as well as the challenges that exist to strengthening prevention efforts in the Region.
Conference participants will specifically focus on:
- Ways to raise awareness about the magnitude and consequence of injuries and violence in the Region;
- Strengthening surveillance systems for injury and violence and the use of data for development of interventions, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation and policy
- Fostering multi-sectoral networks and partnerships; and
- Supporting regional efforts to: – disseminate proven and promising interventions;– improve services for victims and survivors of injuries and violence, and their families; and– enhance teaching and training programmes for professional capacity for injury and violence prevention;
The Conference ending "Hanoi Declaration" is anticipated to call for increased recognition of the burden of injury in regional countries and further prioritization for injury prevention.
* The Asia Pacific Region is defined as the 48 countries and Territories that make up the Western Pacific and South East Asia Regions of WHO.
FACT SHEET
- Injuries and violence, including those in vehicular traffic and at homes, workplaces and schools, cause an estimated 3.1 million deaths in the Asia Pacific region* annually, or more than 8,000 deaths each day.
- This amounts to more than 11% of all regional deaths and 54% of the global injury burden.
- The injury burden in the Asia Pacific region takes a particularly high toll on the young, with more than 27% of the injury and violence death toll impacting children under the age of 15.
- Estimates from WHO indicate that the Asia Pacific region* has the greatest global burden of burns (65%), suicides (64%) drowning (62%) and road traffic injuries (50%).
- In Vietnam MoH figures show:- 25% of all reported deaths in Vietnam are from injuries, almost double those deaths from communicable disease;- An estimated 33,000 deaths are attributed to injury and violence each year, with a further 847,000 serious injuries: Road traffic injuries (50%), drowning (20%), suicides (10%) and occupational injuries (5%) are leading causes of injury and violent death in Vietnam.
- The National Policy on Accident and Injury Prevention, promulgated by the Prime Minister in 2002, guides the implementation of injury prevention activities in Vietnam
- After six years of implementation, injury mortality rates have dropped more than 50% from 88.4/100,000 in 2001 to 46.6/100,000 in 2007.