In the Name of Allah Most Beneficent and Most Merciful

INJURIES AND ACCIDENTS

INJURIES  An injury is, physical damage to the body, resulting from acute exposure to various kinds of energy-mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical or radiant-in amounts that exceed the threshold of physiologic tolerance.  Many more people survive their injuries, and suffer from impairments, disabilities and handicaps

ACCIDENTS  An event that is not expected, foreseen or intended which may result in physical damage to the body of a person.  Globally, more than million people die from injuries every year. Injuries kill more people than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined.

Impairment  Any loss or abnormality of anatomic, physiologic or psychological structure or function.  Disability: Any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity, within the rage, considered normal, being the result of an impairment, and affects the person, rather than an organ.  Handicap: As a disadvantage that results from an impairment or disability that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role.

TYPES OF INJURIES  Intentional injuries  Unintentional injuries

INTENTIONAL INJURIES  Self-directed violence, in which the perpetrator and the victim are the same individual;  Interpersonal violence, which refers to violence between individuals where there is no clearly defined political motive;  Collective violence, which refers to social, political and economic violence committed by larger groups of individuals or by states to advance a social agenda.

INJURIES RISK FACTORS  Each of the major types of violence-self – directed interpersonal and collective-has its own distinct risk factors.

PREVENTION  Primary Prevention: Include any strategies or actions aimed at stopping violent events from taking place, and thus relates to the time before violence actually occurs.  Secondary Prevention: Include any strategies aimed at minimizing the harm that occurs once a violent event is taking place and examples include interventions to reduce the duration of an interpersonal violent event.

Tertiary Prevention  Include all efforts aimed at treating and rehabilitating victims and perpetrations and facilitating their re-adoption to society, and is thus concerned with the period after violence has occurred.

Universal Interventions  Islamic Views about safety and protection of human life, property and honor.  Enactment and enforcement of laws to regulate access to firearms and the consumption of alcohol.

UNINTENTIONAL INJURY  The following classification is suggested for the different categories of unintentional injury or accidents  Traffic Injury  Domestic Injury  Occupational Injury  Recreational Injury

CAUSES OF TRAFFIC INJRIES  Overspeeding  Failure to follow the traffic rules and lack of efforts in enforcement of traffic laws.  Overloading of public transport  Accidents due to mechanical faults and overtaking of vehicles  Lack of traffic sense  Highway accidents  Drunkenness  Overwork, fatigue and conditions of stress  Bad Roads

HOME ACCIDENTS  Home accidents in Pakistan are usually in the kitchen due to bursting of oil stoves or a saree catching fire. Sometimes older people suffer fractures due to falls.  New and old buildings collapsing.  Drowning:  An accident due to drowining is an annual feature near the beaches in Karachi.  Entrapment of children in underground water tanks and open manholes is reported on several occasions.

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS  Injuries due to machine handling  Chemical poisons affecting the G.I. tract.  Eye injuries are welding.  Entrapment in elevators.

ACCIDENTS PREVENTION  Traffic Accidents:  Overspeeding seems a rule rather than an exception  Hit and run is not uncommon near schools, public places and busy streets and the taxi drivers, wagon and bus driver escape, from the place of accident.

PREVENTION  Pedestrians cross the roads freely in utter disregard of the traffic signals.  The roundabouts intended to ease the traffic are no longer useful; on the other hand they are troublesome spots for transport drivers because of the hesitation of drivers to yield.

Home Accidents  Community educational programmes  Safeguarding of medicines in locked cupboards, use of matches by children and avoidance of swallowing of coins and foreign bodies by children.

Industrial Accident Prevention  :  Pre-employment medical examination aptitude testing  Alternative job placement for accident-prone workers.  Provision of rest during working hours and arrangements for recreational programmes such as music, both during working and outside working hours.  Adequate moving space should be available at the work spot.

Prevention  Training of employees in the handling of machines, safety education and first aid training of selected employees.  Provision of first aid facility at work-spot.  Provision of treatment centers and rehabilitation of injured worker. 

Other Accidents  The railway authorities should consider strict vigilance of timing  Electrical short circuit accidents should be prevented through constant patrol of technical manpower.  Accidents due to drowning can be prevented by adequate preparation of picnickers and intensification of rescue squads.

Accidents Insurance  During the recent past, Government authorities have safeguarded the dependents of accident victims by a blanker insurance scheme by which the family of the deceased getsa sum of Rs. 10,000.