UN health agency adopts resolution to prevent child injury

UN health agency adopts resolution to prevent child injury

2011-05-24 01:55:19 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday adopted a resolution on preventing child injury during the ongoing 64th World Health Assembly (WHA).

The resolution on child injury prevention will created a platform designed to prevent injuries, which are the leading cause of death for children over the age of five. It has to be adopted in the WHA plenary.

Delegates at the UN assembly agreed that child injuries represent a major child survival issue which is in need of more attention and resources. More than 830,000 children die each year from road traffic crashes, drowning, burns, falls and poisoning.

The platform will provide effective interventions to prevent such injuries, including enforcing speed limits around schools, placing children in child restraints in the back seats of vehicles, removing or covering water hazards, installing smoke alarms, and setting up poison control centers.

According to a UN report on child injury prevention, at least 558,000 people under the age of 20 in South-East Asia and Africa died from such causes, in comparison to a global total of 950,366 deaths.

In addition, delegates also endorsed the resolution on preparations for the General Assembly's high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which will be held in September.

Non-communicable diseases, primarily heart and lung diseases, cancers and diabetes, have become leading causes of death, according to the WHO status report. In 2008, 36.1 million people died from such diseases.

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO and brings together delegations from all WHO Member States to determine the policies of the agency and to approve the proposed program budget.

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