The World Health Organization’s first Global report on drowning: preventing a leading killer reveals that drowning claims the lives of 372,000 people each year and is among the ten leading causes of death for children and young people in the World. In Viet Nam it is estimated it the leading killer of children aged 5-14.
Drowning is a leading cause of death among children in Viet Nam. According to Viet Nam’s National Injury Survey, nearly 20 children drown every day in Viet Nam. Drowning and near drowning often happens at home, but also near ponds, rivers, and lakes. Males are two times more likely to drown than females and children in rural areas tend to be more at risk.
WHO global report is a call for action to substantially increase efforts and resources to prevent drowning and outlines several actions to be taken by both national policy-makers and local communities, all of which could save many young lives.
“Efforts to reduce child mortality have brought remarkable gains in recent decades, but they have also revealed otherwise hidden childhood killers,” says WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. “Drowning is one. This is a needless loss of life. Action must be taken by national and local governments to put in place the simple preventive measures articulated by WHO.”
Local communities in Viet Nam can take simple measures to prevent drowning: installing barriers to control access to water; teaching children basic swimming skills and training bystanders and family members in safe rescue and resuscitation. At national level, interventions include: adoption of improved boating, shipping and ferry regulations and its implementation; better flood risk management and comprehensive water safety policies.
Accurate data on drowning in Viet Nam is limited and, deaths due to drowning may be considerably underestimated. Official data might not fully capture drowning cases from suicide, homicide, flood disasters or incidents such as ferry capsizes.
“Almost all water presents a drowning risk, particularly inside and around our homes” says Jeffery Kobza, WHO Representative to Viet Nam. “Drowning occurs in bathtubs, buckets, ponds, rivers, ditches and pools, as people go about their daily lives. Losing hundreds of thousands of lives this way is unacceptable, given what we know about prevention.”
The report also draws attention to the need to make drowning prevention an integral part of a number of current debates, such as climate change which leads to increased flooding; mass migrations, including of asylum seekers traveling by boat; and issues such as rural development and water and sanitation. Improving coordination across these various agendas will save lives.
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WHO’s Global report on drowning does not include country specific data on Viet Nam. Data on Viet Nam derived from WHO supported Viet Nam’s National Injury Survey (2010) and WHO Global Health Estimates (2012).