8 February 2016
Burns injuries are a global problem that affect over 11 million people each year – the equivalent of 30,000 people burned every day. 95% of burn injuries occur in poor countries and over 70% affect children, causing enormous suffering, death and lifelong disability. Unfortunately, Palestine is no exception to that and now that the winter has hit the West Bank hard with icy winds and snow the risk of burns is even higher. In poor and rural areas Palestinians use open fires to keep themselves warm, prepare dinner, light the room at night, or to make a hot cup of tea.
As Interburns, an international volunteer network of expert health professionals working to transform global burn care, portrays it ‘burns is the forgotten global public health crisis’. More people are burnt each year than are infected with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. MAP has worked on this issue in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for many years, providing medication and disposables to the burns unit in Rafidia hospital and rehabilitating a building in Hebron's Alia hospital to provide care for burns patients in the South of the West Bank and reduce the numbers of referrals to other hospitals far away from the patients’ home and their families.
Burns patients endure extreme suffering and distress because burns can lead to death and disability from infection, burn contractures and other complications and the long-term consequences often lead to disfigurement and exclusion. However, these can be avoided through safe, cheap and effective treatment and appropriate follow up and rehabilitation.
Boys under 5 years of age living in low- and middle-income countries of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region are almost 6 times as likely to die from burns as boys living in the WHO European Region. (Source: WHO)
At the start of this year a group of 4 Interburns members, came to the West Bank with the support of MAP to conduct a four-day training workshop for a wide variety of staff from the Ministry of Health. Nurses, paediatricians, surgeons and psychotherapists either working in the burns unit in Nablus or planning to work in the unit in Hebron hospitals attended as a diverse treatment team is what makes recovery successful.
This was the first time that this type of burns care training had been provided through the Ministry of Health.
“There is very little opportunity for us to improve our skills, this training workshop is really a unique experience,” one of the doctor from Hebron told MAP. “I am actually on maternity leave but I could not miss this chance for me to get better at treating burns patients,” explained one of the nurses.
The training workshop covered the ABC of essential burn care but more importantly included information on prevention, nutrition and psychological assistance.
Dr. Tom Potokar, director of Interburns and a consultant plastic surgeon elaborated this approach, “specialists cannot work as separate segments, but it takes a whole dedicated team to ensure the recovery of the patient.” One thing he has no doubt about, “I have conducted this training workshop all over the world, from Ghana to Nepal, but never did I have such an enthusiastic group of talented people who are dedicated to their profession. It has been a real pleasure to experience the Palestinian hospitality.”
One of the general surgeons gives his feedback on the training workshop to MAP, “I really enjoyed the methodology of the training workshop. We went over actual cases that I had to deal with recently, through an interactive way we refreshed our practical skills. Hebron is a big city and we receive many patients daily but we do not have the resources to deal with the difficult cases.”
As the training workshop comes to an end, the participants have to repeat the same test as they did at the beginning of the course. All of them made significant improvements on their knowledge of burns treatment. RuthAnn a physiotherapist and one of the trainers, reminds the participants, “we have to remember that there is only one goal in all this: bring back happiness to the patients.”
MAP is hoping to have ongoing training workshops for the staff that are going to run the new burns unit in Hebron, once the equipment is brought in.
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Featured image: Burns are a massive global problem that affect over 11 million people each year – the equivalent of 30,000 people burned every day. 95% of burn injuries occur in poor countries and over 70% affect children, causing enormous suffering, death and lifelong disability. (source:WHO) Unfortunately, Palestine is not an exception to that and now that the winter has hit the West Bank hard with icy wind and snow the risk of burns is even higher. In poor and rural areas Palestinians use open fires to keep themselves warm, prepare dinner, light the room at night, or to make a hot cup of sage tea.