Editorial
Death from drowning
A much-neglected child killer
A Unicef report highlighting the scourge of child fatalities through drowning in Bangladesh presents a serious health issue. What makes an appalling reading is the fact that it remains largely undetected and unrecognised as a concern. Therefore, it is neglected and not put on the radar screen of the government, health ministry and child health and welfare organisations.
The rate of mortality from drowning is one among every four children aged between one and four years. The incidence of deaths is that much high in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand countries which experience moderate to severe flooding.
It is disquieting to note that more children die from drowning than from diseases like measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria and tuberculosis. While there are vaccines and standard antidotes against all these child diseases, the only method to effectively curb drowning is to resort to prevention. A vast majority of such deaths are preventable because these tend to occur within a close proximity to households. Only children wandering out of sight stray into local water bodies and hazard of different kinds.
The preventive interventions can come in two tested ways: First, eighty percent reduction in deaths can be achieved by placing children under localised nurseries when their mothers are out at work. The second method tried out with 90 percent success consists in participation of babies in SwimSafe programme meaning swimming and safe rescue training module.
With such affordable interventions, all we need now is awareness building in communities on do's and don't's and sensitising mothers about ways to avert the hidden but manageable dangers.
When one learns that the actual figure of deaths by drowning among Bangladesh children exceeds known death toll, the government, NGOs, local bodies and communities will have to get their acts together. They must work in concert with the Unicef in tandem to provide the necessary infrastructure including logistics to enable parents to save their babies from drowning.
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