DOH: 73 injured due to fireworks incidents, lower than same period last year

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday said 73 persons have been injured by firework-related incidents across the country since the agency officially started last December 21 its annual monitoring of casualties caused by igniting firecrackers.
 

In its December 26, 6 a.m. firecracker injury registry, the DOH-National Epidemiology Center (DOH-NEC) said the tally of 73 firework-related injuries is 53 cases (or 42 percent) lower than the five-year average (2009-2013) and 89 cases (55 percent) lower than those registered in the same period last year.

           
According to the registry, of the 73 cases, 64 persons (88 percent) were males, with their age ranging from 3 to 68 with a median of 12 years old. Twenty-five of the 73 cases (34 percent) involved children less than 10 years old.
 

Twenty-three (32 percent) of the 73 cases were reported in National Capital Region, with the City of Manila listing 10 cases. Pasig has six cases, with Las Piñas and Pasay registering two cases each, rounding up the top three slots. The agency did not disclose where the other three cases were reported.
 

The registry data revealed 58 (79 percent) of the 73 injured were “active users,” or they were the ones who exploded or lighted up the firecrackers.

           
The registry said that 59 cases (81 percent) of the 73 cases sustained blast injuries without amputation, nine cases (12 percent) sustained eye injuries, and five cases (7 percent) sustained blast injuries requiring amputation.

           
As of December 26, 50 cases (68 percent) of injuries were caused by the firecracker piccolo. Six cases were caused by unknown firecrackers, with luces and boga causing two injuries each.
 

The piccolo, five-star, and plapla firecrackers are considered illegal.
 

On Thursday, the DOH-NEC said that a 51-year-old male from Manila sustained blast injuries which required the amputation of a portion of the left index finger after igniting a plapla.

Code white
 

From December 21 until January 5, the DOH central office, regional offices and DOH-retained hospitals and select private health facilities nationwide are placed on “Code White Alert,” which puts all personnel of participating hospitals on standby for deployment and augmentation as the need arises.
 

The DOH has said that its annual anti-firecracker campaign is one of its biggest and most extensive advocacies, involving thousands of health personnel and volunteers across the Philippines “working and cooperating in an effort to save lives and limbs unnecessarily and mindlessly lost due to firecracker-related injuries.”
 

Since the launch of the anti-firecracker drive, the DOH has been encouraging the public to enjoy the holiday season by using safer alternative to firecrackers.
 

The DOH has been appealing to adults to exercise vigilance as well, advising them that if they see children playing with firecrackers, they should “act decisively and wisely” and “immediately seize” the firecrackers from children and put them away where they cannot get them.
 

DOH statistics showed that 1,018 fireworks-related injuries were recorded from Dec. 21, 2013 to Jan. 5, 2014. The number of fireworks-related injuries is nine percent higher compared to the same period in December 2012-January 2013.
 

The Dec. 21, 2013 to Jan. 5, 2014 figures came from 50 DOH sentinel surveillance hospitals.

           
Most cases in 2013-2014 period came from the National Capital Region (587 cases), followed by CALABARZON (80), Western Visayas (73), and Ilocos Region (65). Of the total cases, 51 percent involved males, aged six to 15 years old.

           
In the National Capital Region, Manila and Quezon City registered the most number of cases with 215 and 130 cases, respectively.
 

Of the 1,018 cases recorded, 997 were due to fireworks injuries, 19 were due to stray bullets, and two due to firecracker ingestion. One death reported was caused by sustained multiple injuries due to explosion of mixed firecracker powder. —KG, GMA News