Burns in South Africa: Who is at risk?
There is a high incidence of burn injuries in South Africa. The root causes of this need to be addressed, but simply being aware of the risks is enough to increase vigilance and prevention.
Burns are extremely painful, often life-threatening injuries that take a long time to heal and often leave the victim with serious, lifelong scarring. South Africa has a particularly high rate of childhood burns, with as many as 1 300 burn-related deaths each year – and this incidence peaks in the winter months when coal-burning fires are used to heat low-income homes. By being aware of the main risk factors for childhood burns in this country, it’s possible to reduce those risks and keep children – and adults – safe.
In a review published by the Medical Research Council at Unisa, entitled The Epidemiology of Childhood Burn Injuries in South Africa, the following was revealed:
- Children aged six and younger are at particularly high risk for burns.
- Toddlers, followed by infants are at greatest risk.
- The majority of burn victims are African children – which relates to both the higher proportion of African children in the country and the fact that African families are traditionally of a lower income, and more likely to heat their homes with coal or wood burning fires, and have less space in which to boil water.
- Infant scalding are most commonly from hot liquids such as tea, soup or water prepared for cleaning.
- Toddler scaldings (of two and three year olds) most often occur when pots, kettles or heating equipment are found on the floor or low tables. They also use electrical cables to pull themselves up, which results in hot liquid spills.”
- Three year olds also start to show burns from other sources, suggesting that they begin to spend more time outside of the home where they are not directly supervised by adults at this age.
While advances in medical science have meant that burn treatment protocols are improving all the time, nothing can take away the initial extreme pain and fear that comes with a burn injury.
By working together, finding solutions and creating awareness, we can succeed in bringing down South Africa’s unacceptably high rate of burn injuries.
ArriveAlive.co.za has created a series of articles that cover burn treatment, burn prevention, burn after-care and the South African health care system’s burn capacity and protocols, this being the first article:
Don’t get burnt this winter!
In the winter months, it is important to be super-vigilant to keep children from getting burnt by heaters, fires, hot water and hot plates. It is vital that parents and teachers educate themselves and then educate their children to reduce the incidence of burns in South Africa.
In South Africa, winter is burn season. And in burn season, the people who most often suffer these painful injuries are children. While no parent should ever feel guilty about the circumstances leading to a child getting accidentally burnt, there are many steps that can be taken to make a home more safe for a child – especially in the winter months.
Burn rates spike in children who are two to three years old and again when children begin school. Both these spikes coincide with a sudden increase in independence, so while it is important to protect a child from burns, it is also important to educate them about what they can and can’t do from a very early age.
These are some areas that require specific attention:
- Hotplates – especially if these are placed on the floor or a low table. It is very easy for a crawling child to reach for a hotplate or fall onto one on the ground. Try to keep hotplates out of reach or behind a barrier.
- Kettles. If these are on the floor, the risk of injury is the same as with a hot plate. When these are placed on a low surface, especially if the kettle cord dangles, a child can easily overturn the kettle over themselves.
- Any electrical wires that lead to heating devices. Small children see electrical cords as helpful ropes to pull themselves up with. Always make sure that cords lie against the wall with furniture against them, and never dangling off the edge of a table or cupboard.
- If your child is in the same room as a fire or heater, never leave them alone and never stop watching them. Remember that a child doesn’t have to be walking or even crawling to be mobile.
- Keep lighters, matches and any flammable liquid like paraffin out of your child’s reach. From a very early age, teach them that all these items can hurt them.
- Teach your children to Stop, Drop and Roll if their clothes catch on fire as if these steps are taken quickly, they can prevent bad burning.
- Speak to your child’s daycare owner, teacher or principal about what in-school educational steps are taken to make children aware of burn risks, and campaign for better education if none exists.
Of course, it’s possible for anyone in a family to suffer a burn injury at any time, so while it’s important to ramp up the vigilance in winter, don’t let your guard down all year round. Stay safe.
Caring for a burn injury in hospital and afterwards
Unfortunately, the treatment for a serious burn isn’t an overnight process. Depending on the severity of the burn, a victim might have to spend a long time in hospital, and will have to continue to care for the injury long after they have been discharged.
Many South African hospitals simply do not have the resources or training to properly manage burn wound care, so it is useful for South Africans to be aware of how serious burns should be treated so that they can demand the best care and help themselves if necessary.
Keep it covered
The most important factor in burn treatment is to cover the wound as quickly as possible. The longer the wound is open, the more likely it is to get an infection.
These factors include physical damage, which occurs every time a dressing is taken off a wound, and temperature damage, which also occurs when the dressing is removed, because the wound needs to warm up again before healing can restart. Also, when a wound is uncovered, there is a greater chance of infection because it is exposed to airborne germs.
There is a new generation of burn dressings that are applied only once and then not removed – allowing for healing to take place underneath. When the wound has healed, the dressings flake away, so wound management, patient outcomes and pain levels are significantly improved. They can even be used in burns where skin grafts are required because they heal as much of the surface as possible, allowing for the smallest area to be grafted.
Aftercare for burns
Once the wound has sealed, patients need to remember that the healing journey has not ended and they will need to continue to take care of the site of the injury. It can take a year for the wound to heal properly and for all the tissue to connect and even out.
It’s vitally important to take care of the wound, even if the surface appears to have healed. Avoid the sun altogether or, if this is not possible, use a good-quality sunblock on the scar. Use a good moisturiser and massage gently when applying it, to help remodel the tissues underneath.
Burn dressing innovation revolutionises burn care
Burn care is an unappealing health care discipline because recovery is slow and treatment is painful and traumatic. Advances in burn dressings are set to change all this.
Caring for patients with serious burns is traditionally difficult, heartbreaking and physically demanding. The emotional and physical trauma that they experience is transmitted to their caregivers.
Burn care is also a long-term process. There is no quick fix and there are many painful interventions along the way. Add to this that the majority of serious burn victims in South Africa are children, and it’s easy to understand why healthcare workers shy away from this particular discipline.
Previously, burn patients had to undergo dressing changes every day. This process was painful and traumatic for the patient, and demoralising for the healthcare giver – especially if the victim was a child who wasn’t able to comprehend that the process was for their own good.
This care process also slowed down healing because as the dressings were stripped away, many of the new tissues that the victim’s body had grown would be stripped away too.
However, over the past ten years, burn dressings have advanced so that they don’t need to be changed regularly. Some burn dressings now don’t need to be changed at all.
Instead, the burn injury is cleaned out under anaesthetic and the intelligent dressing is placed over it. The dressing forms a sealed layer that encourages the tissues to grow beneath it without growing into the dressing. When the burn injury has healed, the dressing flakes off.
This process completely does away with the need for painful, traumatic dressing changes. While it can’t be used on all burns, it can be used in a significant number of partial-thickness cases, and can help a great deal with full-thickness burn injuries.
With these kinds of advances, burn care will attract more dedicated healthcare workers in future, and this area of healthcare that has been significantly neglected in South Africa will start to get the attention it deserves.
Burnshield Emergency Burncare: Dressing
Burnshield Emergency burncare dressings are unique versatile foam dressings that provide essential immediate treatment and protection within the first critical 24 hours following a burn. These dressings are saturated with a sterile, water-based non-toxic gel, providing immediate relief by cooling the burn. Simultaneously Burnshield minimises pain and aids in physical protection against infection. Keeping the wound hydrated with Burnshield sterile trauma hydrogel is vital for improved results.
- Heat dissipation
- Conforms to wound area
- Fibreless elastic open-cell foam sheeting
- Wound covering
- Gel retention
- Non toxic
Source Reference: https://www.arrivealive.co.za/Safety-Prevention-and-Treatment-from-Burns