Welcome!

Interburns is a worldwide network of burn care professionals dedicated to drastically reducing death and disability from burn injuries globally. Interburns is an innovative, dynamic organisation (a UK Registered Charity) with a clear vision, methodology and philosophy. The Education and Training of burn care teams of the future is our primary strategy in achieving our goal. Our education and training is relevant to the local context, with a focus on implementation of appropriate knowledge into practice to change behaviour and improve outcomes.

Burns: The Facts

Sometimes referred to the as the ‘forgotten public health crisis’ global burn injuries are a neglected issue, with a very small voice compared to infectious diseases, mother and child health etc. Yet more children in Asia die as a result of burns than TB or HIV. Survivors of burn injuries are usually left unnecessarily disabled and disfigured with permanent scarring both physically and psycho-socially through inadequate or delayed treatment. Our network is trying to change this, and we believe that we are making progress, one step at a time. Please join us!

Most burn injuries are preventable. There is massive disparity between incidence and outcomes of burns between low and high income countries:

  • 95% of burns occur in low and middle income countries - 70% of these affect children (World Health Organisation WHO figs)
  • The best burn centres in high income countries can save burn patients with more than 90% surface area burns; in the developing world deeper burns of over 40% are almost invariably fatal.
  • Three times as many women in South East Asia are burnt than contract HIV and AIDS, and women are 17 times more likely to be burn than those in high income countries (WHO, Cited Fact Sheet: The Forgotten Global Crisis of Burns).
  • In Bangladesh burns are the 5th leading cause of childhood illness amongst 1-17 year olds. (Mashreky et al).

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