Doctors to combat burns 'neglect'

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Burn injury specialists in Swansea are helping colleagues in developing countries tackle a "neglected" health care service in much of the world.

They have helped create a distance learning training course for medics in India, Pakistan and Africa.

Around 250 delegates from all over the world are in the city for a meeting of the British Burn Association.

They will hear 90% of the world's burn injuries occur in developing countries and 70% of these are in children.

The Welsh Centre for Burns at Morriston Hospital has teamed-up with centres in Pakistan and India to improve care there.

Morriston burns consultant Tom Potokar is one of the driving forces behind the network - which has developed into a non-profit organisation called Interburns.

"We are very privileged in the UK in that instances of burn injuries have fallen dramatically in the last 50 years, which is due to a combination of prevention activities and health and safety legislation," he said.

"Nowadays, according to the World Health Organisation, about 90% of all burn injuries occur in lower or middle income countries of which the majority are in children.

"Whilst we have the potential to save someone with up to 90% burns, in most of the world a burn over 40% is usually fatal.

A lot of injuries are cooking related where cooking is done on open fires. Tom Potokar

"This network initially started off as a twinning between our centre and the centre in India at Choithram Hospital and now it has extended to include the burns centre in Karachi.

"We have got a number of programmes on the way - the most significant of which is we have developed a central burn care course."

He said it was being launched in India and Pakistan in June and then they would look to extend it to Africa.

"We have developed some educational DVDs which are in both English and Urdu and we have hosted a couple of fellowships.

"Globally there are not that many people involved in burn care - it's a very neglected subject in a lot of the world."

He said unlike many other injuries such as road traffic accidents, drowning or assaults, women suffered more than men.

"That is because a lot of injuries are cooking related where cooking is done on open fires," Dr Potokar said.

"With the type of clothing worn in lots of areas of the world there is no legislation, so these garments go up very very rapidly."

He said there were also a high proportion of chemical burns in some developing countries.

Dr Potokar made contacts in Pakistan while treating earthquake victims

"Unfortunately there are a lot of assaults and acid is used quite regularly. These create absolutely horrendous injuries which are very difficult to treat.

"There are also some countries where in suicide, flames are used a lot - in some parts of Afghanistan for example there are very high instances of suicide and attempted suicide injuries in women from self immolation."

Dr Potokar said the role of Interburns was to try to reduce injuries and improve treatment.

"One of the problems is a lot of the drugs we use routinely are not available," he said.

"Prevention is certainly the key but it has to be prevention that works.

"Alongside that you still have to develop treatment for acute burns and also for the millions of people around the world who have deformities as a result of burn injuries."