Protect children from burning
As children’s skin is still developing, they have thinner skin than adults; which can result in more serious injuries from a burn or scald.
May 6 to 12 is National Burn Awareness Week and it serves as an opportunity to raise awareness about the effects that burn wounds have, especially on children.
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As children’s skin is still developing, they have thinner skin than adults; which can result in more serious injuries from a burn or scald.
Their skin also burns at lower temperatures, thus making them susceptible to harsher burns with long-term effects.
According to Stella de Kock, managing director of Transplant Education for Living Legacies (TELL), sub-Saharan countries carry an extraordinary burden of burn injuries amongst children.
Kock said that it is estimated that between 300 000 and 17,5-million children under five years sustain burn injuries annually and that fire-related burns are the second-largest external cause of death in the region.
Burns and scalds can be prevented by creating a child-safe area at home, keeping hot objectives out of children’s safety, teaching older children how to cook safely, checking bath water temperature, watching children around fireplaces and not holding your child while working in the kitchen.
“In South Africa, burns are the third most common cause of accidental deaths among children under 14 years, exceeded only by motor vehicle accidents and drowning. Nearly 230 children die from burns in South Africa every year.
“These deaths occur due to the severity of the burns, but more so because there are no effective, affordable synthetic treatment options available to patients,” said Kock.
The director added that there are 23 burns units in South Africa and they are all generally render acute emergency care, with a limited number rendering comprehensive care and two of the leading burn units in South Africa are situated at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital respectively.
“Every year the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital treats approximately 3 500 children for burns, approximately 1 300 of these cases are severe burns.
Ninety percent of children treated for burns are from disadvantaged communities,” added Kock.
TELL visited the paediatric burn unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in February to gift children a Zane education toy.
The hospital is the third-largest hospital in the world and the unit caters for burn victims from Gauteng and the North West province.
The unit looks after children under the age of nine who have burn wounds from hot water accidents, electrical appliances and fireworks.
De Kock also shared the importance of skin donation.
“Burn wounds must be dressed to prevent dehydration and infection. By applying donor skin (Allograft) to burn wounds, the body recognises the skin as human tissue and sees it as the patient’s own and accepts it.
“A skin allograft relieves pain and controls infection more effectively than a collagen dressing. The skin allograft can be harvested from the torso, hips, thighs, and upper calves of the deceased donor.
“The donor skin can be left on the wound for up to two weeks without having to redress the wound during this time, which enables the body to recover. The donor skin dries out after two weeks, making it easy to remove and causing future damage or pain.”
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