media releases - Conference on injury prevention and safety promotion.

Principal and Vice Chancellor of UNISA, Professor Barney Pityana announced that the MRC/UNISA Crime, Violence and Injury Lead Programme had won the right to host the 8th World Congress on Injury Prevention at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg in March 2006, The conference, which is endorsed by over fifty agencies in the sector, including the South African Ministries of Health, Justice, Education, Safety and Security, Transport, and Environmental Affairs and Tourism, as well as the continental based Injury Prevention Initiative for Africa (IPIFA) is part of an initiative by the World Health Organisation to facilitate a series of conferences across the globe and prioritise violence and injuries, and their prevention. Prof. Pityana appealed to the health, safety and security, transport, educational, labour, environmental, social sciences and sporting sectors to work in concert with civil society to:

Strengthen basic injury prevention and safety promotion infrastructure, including injury registration systems at national, provincial, city and district levels;

Ensure representation of injury prevention and safety promotion interests at all levels of policy-making; and

Promote the development of accessible technologies, safety products and strategies.

Prof. Pityana was speaking at the Sandton Convention Centre at the launch of the fourth annual report of the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS), which is being co-ordinated by the MRC/UNISA Lead Programme. In releasing the report, the Acting Director-General of Health, Dr. Kamy Chetty said that firearms accounted for 27.8% of all non-natural deaths recorded by the NIMSS in 2002, a slight increase on the 27.6% in 2001. Firearms again accounted for more deaths than road traffic collisions, which accounted for 25% of all non-natural deaths. "Firearms were also the leading cause of fatal injury for all ages between 15 and 65 years, and accounted for 7081 of the 25 494 deaths recorded by the NIMSS, 89% were due to homicide, 10% suicide and 32 (0.5%) were accidental, "said Dr. Chetty.

Also speaking at the launch were the Acting President of the Medical Research Council, Professor Emeritus William Pick as well as Dr. Wendy Watson from the National Department of Transport, and the Director of the Lead Programme, Prof Mohamed Seedat. Alluding to the NIMSS findings, Dr. Watson highlighted the plight of pedestrians in South Africa, who accounted for more than 40% of all road deaths. As the National Ministry of Transport had endorsed the 8th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, it recognised that partnerships and collaborations which pooled resources and expertise were key for bringing safety to our roads.

Professor Pick made an impassionate plea for a national action plan for violence and injury prevention that would focus on:

The strengthening of injury surveillance systems;

The generation of knowledge products detailing what works for prevention;

Increasing overall capacity for data collection, analysis and evaluation;

Prof. Pick also called for a review of all violence and injury prevention work in South Africa that would help facilitate a long over-due coordinated response to the scourge of injuries. The Director of the Lead Prgramme, Professor Mohamed Seedat said that the conference will provide the opportunity to learn from the experiences of experts and panelists from other countries, many of which are facing the same or similar problems to South Africa. Prof. Seedat, Director of the MRC-UNISA Lead Programme called for prevention initiatives to be centred in and around homes, schools, workplaces and recreational facilities. He stressed the need for firmer gun control and regulated access to alcohol over weekends and other high-risk periods including holiday seasons. He indicated that social development programmes, community policing and the reduction of media violence and social inequalities were among the many measures that can help to reduce gun-homicide, traffic deaths and other unintentional injuries.