More women than men die from burns: J-K hospital study

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10

Women continue to be the worst sufferers of burn injuries in India with the largest hospital-based study revealing that 7 in every 10 persons dying of burns is a female. In more than half of the cases, burns were due to suicide bids by victims facing domestic challenges, mainly dowry violence.

The study, conducted on 2,230 burns patients admitted to Jammu Government Medical College and Hospital between 1994 and 2014, attempted to analyse demographic and etiological (branch of medicine dealing with the cause of disease) factors behind burns in the Jammu province and looked at cases from 10 districts of the region. The hospital caters to 50 lakh population.

“The idea was to develop a better understanding of causes and the scope of burn injuries, which are severely neglected in India. Little is known about demographic characteristics of patients with major burns in India,” said Dr Amit Parray, principal author of the study. Parray has worked on the subject while serving at the Department of Surgery, Government Medical College, Jammu.

The study reveals that out of 2,230 burn patients, 1,333 were females and among the 45% who died, 73% were females (seven in 10).

More strikingly, 80% of the dead were between 21 and 40 years, revealing an increasing burn injury burden among the economically productive age group.

Another alarming finding of the research, published in the latest issue of medicine journal Current Medicine Science and Practice, published by Gangaram Trust, is that in case of 1,236 victims (57% ) burns were caused due to suicidal factors followed by 40% which were accidental and 3% (77 cases) which were homicidal.

“Our study reveals two major trends for public health experts to investigate and extrapolate. Between 1994 and 2014, we see female predominance among burn patients and victims who reported to Jammu Government Hospital. Two, in 57% cases injuries were due to suicidal factors though not all appeared suicidal. In many cases, families tend to pin the blame on the woman victim and say she was trying to kill herself. Our data points to possible trends in dowry violence,” Dr Parry said.

The authors say the government needs to refocus on burns which the WHO has described as the “forgotten public health crisis”. In India, burn injuries are the second most common injuries after road mishaps and the estimated annual incidence is 6-7 million. Overall, Southeast Asia is the epicenter of burn deaths accounting for 1,84,000 of the 3,20,000 deaths that occur worldwide annually due to fire-related causes.

“Across India, estimates suggest that out of all who get admitted to hospitals, 50% die. In our study, burns were caused by flames in 83% cases; followed by scalds in 9%. Electric burns were 7%c and chemical (acid) burns were 0.5%,” Dr Parray said.

Burn management in India remains challenging due to severe shortage of burn units in public hospitals and lack of eagerness on the part of private hospitals to share the injury burden.