More than 90% of burn injuries occur in developing nations and approximately 70% of these are in children. Lack of staff, lack of training and facilities and the overwhelming workload all hinder the provision of optimal care.
- To reduce the global burden of burn related deaths and disabilities by stimulating appropriate and effective evidence based treatment based on sound and reliable research.
- To disseminate knowledge through education and training.
- To promote and develop burn prevention programs.
- To highlight the impact of burn injuries and their sequelae as a significant public health issue.
Training Essential Care of Burns (ECB) Course INTERBURNS has developed a practical course for doctors and other healthworkers who look after burn injured patients. The emphasis of this course is the management of mild and moderate burns which form the vast bulk of injuries and result in significant morbidity and mortality if not treated appropriately.
The course is flexible and has a problem solving element as well as requiring active involvement of the participants. The importance of data collection, prevention and first aid are highlighted as well as initial management, ongoing care and rehabilitation. A very successful pilot course was held in Karachi in November 2006 with further courses planned in India and Pakistan next year, and then elsewhere in Africa, Asia and Latin America in the future. Burns Fellowships The Welsh Burns Centre has hosted two fellows (one from Pakistan and one from Uganda) who spent time learning about the comprehensive management of burns before returning home where they will help to improve burn services locally. We expect to have further international fellows next year.
The chief burns nurse from the Choithram Burns Centre in Indore India was awarded a grant to attend the European Paediatric Burn Club World Congress in Capetown, S Africa in October 2005 followed by a 2 week nursing attachment at the paediatric burns centre in the Red Cross Hospital.
We have a website (www.interburns.org) hosted in India that contains educational material in the form of slide presentations as well as a distance based learning package (developed with colleagues in Nigeria) and information on prevention with links to relevant organisations. This website will be augmented further with additional material as funds permit. Educational DVD’s INTERBURNS is in the process of creating simple educational DVD’s on important aspects of burn care. The first bilingual (English and Urdu) one has been made on excision and grafting of small burns. Prevention Burn injury is a preventable accident if one is aware of the risks in ones daily life.
NTERBURNS promotes public awareness. It also helps them learn skills for extinguishing fire. This is achieved through school education programs, rallies with public participation, posters in banks, temples, bus stands, railway station, airports, city buses, and other busy public places. Women and adolescent girls from rural and tribal regions come to the city for few months of education and training. Our program is part of their training.
Our awareness posters reach through them to their villages Meetings Representatives of INTERBURNS have presented at national and international meetings on education and training in burns, the Essential Burn Care course, burn prevention, partnership programmes in burns and burn networks (International Society for Burn Injuries, Fortaleza, Brasil (Sept 2006), National Academy of Burns of India, Mumbai (Jan 2007), Indore, India Jan (2006), Pan African Burns Congress, Assiut, Egypt (Jan 2007).
We are involved in collaborative research, clinical, sociological and scientific. Initially more work needs to be done to define the extent of burn injuries on a global scale and the burden that this places on already overstretched health services. This will then allow appropriately targeted campaigns and will provide evidence to support the call for resources. In addition clinical research to look at outcomes and basic science work particularly related to infection in burns are vitally important. The Welsh Burns Centre has just been designated the Healing Foundation UK Centre for Burns Research and is therefore in a prime position to stimulate and support this work.
Dr Tom Potokar
Consultant Plastic Surgeon Dept Burns & Plastic Surgery
Welsh Centre for Burns & Plastic Surgery
Tel: 01792 702222
Dr Shariq Ali
Consultant Plastic Surgeon & Director of Burns Uni
Dow University Medical College Burns Centre