Protecting children from unpredictable dangers | Gia Lai Electronic Newspaper

In a few days, the 2022-2023 school year will end, which is also the time when students of all levels enter a long summer vacation.

Summer vacation is a period when any child feels excited and happy, because they will be at home, having fun after many months of stressful studying. However, summer vacation is also a period when children have to face many dangers to their health and life. Because children are active, curious, and lack knowledge and skills to prevent, they are very susceptible to injuries, traffic accidents and drowning during daily activities and play. Besides, there are also causes due to subjectivity, negligence, and lack of interest of some adults in protecting and caring for children.

According to the Ministry of Health , on average, each year, about 370,000 children nationwide suffer from accidents and injuries, of which the 15-17 age group accounts for the highest rate (43%), followed by the 5-14 age group (36.9%), and the lowest is the 0-4 age group (19.5%). The number of children who die from accidents and injuries is more than 6,500 cases/year. Boys tend to be injured more often and more seriously than girls. Among the causes of death from accidents and injuries in children, drowning is the leading cause with 3,500 children/year. According to many health experts, accidents and injuries can happen to anyone, at any age. However, with children, accidents often happen suddenly, are unpredictable, and can cause very serious physical injuries. Some statistics show that children between the ages of 1-5 often have accidents related to burns, drowning, choking on foreign objects, falling down stairs; children between the ages of 6-10 often have accidents due to contact with the outside environment such as: broken arms, legs due to climbing, traffic accidents. Meanwhile, children between the ages of 14-16 often have traffic accidents.

Along with the dangers of accidents and injuries to children, summer is also a period of hot weather and high humidity, which is a favorable condition for viruses and bacteria that are harmful to health to develop with easily spread diseases, such as: meningitis, dengue fever, diarrhea, cholera, chickenpox, hand, foot and mouth disease. Meanwhile, many localities in the country are facing a shortage of many types of vaccines in the National Expanded Immunization Program. This also means that children will be at risk of contracting more dangerous diseases when they are not fully vaccinated due to a lack of vaccines.

The above injury statistics and the potentially complex epidemic situation make the community feel worried about the risks to children during the upcoming long summer vacation. To protect the health and lives of children, and more importantly, to allow the future generations of the country to enjoy a safe, fun, and rewarding summer vacation, adults and parents need to further enhance their responsibility in protecting, caring for, and supervising young children. Authorities also need to step up propaganda to parents about strengthening supervision and management of their children during the summer vacation. Local authorities, schools, youth unions, and social organizations need to coordinate closely and creatively to organize many useful summer activities and entertainment for children to minimize the risk of accidents. At the same time, it is necessary to equip children with the most basic knowledge and skills to protect themselves from potential risks. Along with that, the health sector and local authorities need to promptly take measures to resolve the vaccine shortage so that children can be fully vaccinated, in order to effectively protect their health and safety against disease threats.

According to NGUYEN QUOC (SGGPO)

Original article link: https://www.sggp.org.vn/bao-ve-tre-em-truoc-cac-hiem-hoa-kho-luong-post691029.html

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