Autopsy Examination of Deaths due to Ante-Mortem burns with analysis of incidents and other associated factors with Demographic determinants

Abstract

Burn injuries are an important public health problem resulting in deaths, disability and disfigurement. Burns has been described as an endemic health hazard in India,which is the second largest group of injuries after road traffic accidents.Every year, all over the world, a large number of people succumb to burn injury, more so due to acute burn.The high incidence is attributed to illiteracy, poverty and low level safety consciousness in the population.The situation becomes further grim due to the absence of organized burn care at primary and secondary health care level. There are An estimated 1,80,000 deaths every year are caused by “Fire related injuries alone”, in which the commonest cause is of acute burn. As India does not have a national injury surveillance system, the exact incidence of burns morbidly and mortality is not known.Padma Bhate-Deosthali & Lakshmi Lingam (2016) Reported an estimated 7 million burn injuries in India annually, of which 700,000 require hospital admission and 140,000 are fatal. According to the National Burns Programme, 91,000 of these deaths are women; a figure higher than that for maternal mortality. Women of child bearing age are on average three times more likely than men to die of burn injuries.The data for other forms of burn like scalds, electric burn, etc. are not available globally. Lightening with associated wide spread burn injuries are very rampant in India. With burns occurring mainly at home or work place, the accidental burns are, by and large, preventable. The non fatal burns have socio-economic aspects and have a large morbidity load.Health systems need to create awareness programmes about domestic violence and train health care professionals to identify signs and symptoms of violence. This would contribute to early identification of abuse so that survivors are able to access support services at an early stage.