Nearly 1 Million Injury Deaths Per Year in India - Dr. Ellen J. MacKenzie

Dr. Ellen J. MacKenzie, Dean JHSPH at IIHMR University

Jaipur, 25 February: “Nearly 1 million injury-related deaths occur in India per year. For every injury death, there are 135 people that are treated and survive and many more that are not registered or not treated. Globally, 83% of all injury deaths occur in Lower Middle Income Countries (LMIC). For every injury, there are 10-50 survivors who sustain temporary or permanent disabilities,” said Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, Dr. Ellen J. Mackenzie, as she delivered the keynote address at the prestigious P.D. Agarwal Memorial Lecture on the topic “Towards Zero Preventable Death and Disability from Injury: A Systems Approach”. The program was held in association with Bhoruka Charitable Trust (BCT) and IIHMR University at Maharana Pratap Auditorium, Jaipur on February 25, 2019.

Highlighting the disease burden from injuries in India, Dr. Mackenzie further added that a third of burden resulted from Road Traffic injuries with India facing about 250,000 deaths per year. Suicide is an underappreciated cause of death falling under the category of Self-Harm related injuries with a whopping 230,000 deaths per in India. The age group between 15 and 49 years of age comprise two-thirds of the disease burden in the country.

Talking about the status of trauma care in India, a way forward, she said that ‘112’ emergency has only partial coverage, limited to on-seen care and ambulance transport, gaps in definitive hospital trauma care, poor coordination, limited surveillance, among others are the drawbacks of the current Indian healthcare system. Establishing a Regionalized System of Trauma Care is key to getting the right patient to the right level of care in the right amount of time. This can be done by – reliable communications, pre-hospital care, timely triage and transport to the right hospital care, seamless transfer to rehabilitation, among others. Trustee of IIHMR & BCT, Dr. Ashok Agarwal gave an introduction of Late Shri P.D. Agarwal saying, “Shri P.D. Agarwal was a pioneer and visionary philanthropist who considered work his duty.” On the occasion, he also shared several anecdotes about P.D. Agarwal that highlighted his fair-mindedness, magnanimity and altruism which has also been a great source of inspiration to this family, employees and peers.

President of IIHMR University, Dr. Pankaj Gupta said that the visionary P.D. Agarwal believed in creating wealth with not just money but with meaning. He further said that the P.D. memorial lectures have witnessed many eminent personalities in the past and that he is very thrilled to be associated with Dr. Ellen J. Mackenzie this time.

On the occasion, Trustee of IIHMR-U, Dr. S.D. Gupta introduced the keynote speaker and said that this memorial lecture is an initiative to commemorate Late Shri P.D. Agarwal’s contribution to society. The program was followed by a Q&A session where the guests had the opportunity to interact with the panel.