Scorched patients will not be disabled due to lack of treatment, Ministry of Health handed over command to Delhi AIIMS

Pankaj Prasad
Delhi AIIMS
Delhi AIIMS

To provide timely treatment to fire or acid victims, the central and state governments have jointly decided to promote health services.

To provide timely treatment to fire or acid victims, the central and state governments have jointly decided to promote health services. For this, the responsibility has been given to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Doctors and nurses sent by the state governments are being trained in AIIMS so that burn victims can get first aid from primary and community health centers to district hospitals.

Due to lack of such expertise in most of the government hospitals in the country, patients often do not get timely treatment, due to which the patient becomes a victim of disability or the risk of his death also increases. A senior health ministry official said that training is being imparted to provide first aid to fire or acid victims from district to rural areas as well. The information of these employees is being shared with AIIMS after getting the list from the state governments.  

70 lakh people get injured due to burns every year in India.

23,000 died of fire in 2019 

According to The Lancet Public Health Medical Journal, in the year 2019, more than 23 thousand people died due to fire in the country, which is about 20% of the global death rate. Doctors of AIIMS itself say that there are many challenges ahead of the victims in these incidents.

These people are financially troubled. They are also vocationally disabled and socially excluded. Doctors of AIIMS told that during the training, doctors and nurses from different states are coming to them, first of all they are teaching them how to bandage fire victims with the help of 3D model.

Every year 1.4 lakh people die due to burns in the country. Till now about two batches have taken training here. The third batch is going to take training from February 8. According to the statistics of the ministry, about 70 lakh people get injured due to burns every year in India, out of which 1.4 lakh people die. Also, 2.4 lakh people are becoming victims of disability. The main reason behind this is not getting first aid on time.

According to the World Health Organisation, every year around 2,65,000 deaths occur due to fire alone. Most of these deaths occur in countries in the South East Asia region, in which India occupies a prominent position.