WHO urge action on drowning - a 'leading killer' worldwide

Date: Nov-18-2014 In their first global report on drowning, the World Health

Organization reveal that every hour, more than 40 people around the

world lose their lives by drowning, with young children at greatest risk.

According to WHO, around 372,000 people every year die from drowning, with more than half of deaths occurring among under-25s.

The total number of lives lost every year worldwide to drowning

comes to 372,000, says the United Nations health agency. Over half of deaths by

drowning occur among under-25s, and men are twice as likely to

drown as women.

More than 90% of cases of drowning occur in low- and middle-income

countries. The highest rates are in Africa, South East Asia and the

Western Pacific.

"This death toll is almost two thirds
that of malnutrition and well over
half that of malaria," notes the report, "but unlike these
public health challenges, there are
no broad prevention efforts that
target drowning."

The report also reveals that drowning is among the ten leading causes

of death for children and young people in every region of the globe. It

also shows that more children under 15 die every year of drowning than

of measles or tuberculosis.

National policymakers and local communities need to

scale up and invest more resources in efforts to prevent drowning, according to the report, which

suggests several actions they can take.

WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan says efforts to reduce deaths

in the very young have brought remarkable success in recent decades, but

they have also revealed otherwise hidden childhood killers - and

drowning is one of them.

Dr. Chan adds:

"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."

Drowning prevention strategies

The following highlights some of the drowning prevention strategies

the WHO report suggests can be taken at local and national level:

Install barriers to control access to water
Make sure all children learn basic swimming skills
Provide safe places for children, such as day care

centers
Train bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation
Improve boating, shipping and ferry regulations
Adopt comprehensive policies for water safety
Improve flood risk management.

WHO say they were alarmed to discover studies carried out in high-income countries show deaths due to drowning may be seriously

underestimated.

Official drowning statistics may, for example, exclude drowning due to

suicide, homicide, flood or disasters - such as ferries capsizing.

Dr. Etienne Krug, director of WHO's Department for Management of

Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention,

warns that all water poses a drowning risk, both inside, around and

outside the home, adding:

"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 gives examples of drowning prevention projects in

countries with high rates of drowning, such as Bangladesh, Cambodia,

China, India, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It recommends

studying the projects to identify best practices that can then be

implemented more widely.

Drowning also needs to be on the agenda in current debates about

climate change, mass migrations, rural development, water and

sanitation, says the report.

In 2009, Medical News Today reported a study that

indicated young children have a lower

risk of drowning if they have received swimming lessons.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

Not to be reproduced without permission.

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Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.