This chapter examines the issue of unintentional injuries and focuses on a selected number of cause-specific unintentional injuries. Injuries have traditionally been defined as damage to a person caused by an acute transfer of energy (mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical, or radiation) or by the sudden absence of heat or oxygen. Unintentional injuries consist of that subset of injuries for which there is no evidence of predetermined intent. The cause-specific unintentional injuries examined here include those that the World Health Organization (WHO) routinely analyzes and publishes data on and that individually account for the greatest unintentional injury burden in terms of mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). These include road traffic injuries (RTIs), poisonings, falls, burns, and drowning (figure 39.1).
Copyright © 2006, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank Group.