Injury Registration in a Developing Country. A Study Based on Patients’ Records from Four Hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized and given high priority to prevention of injuries as expressed in the “WHO global programme for accident prevention”, a programme involving a number of injury collaborating centres worldwide. Data from developed countries has shown that by applying a strategy which contains several simultaneous approaches, it has been possible to reduce injuries by 25%} There is a general consensus among injury experts that injury surveillance systems make prevention efforts more effective. The health sector has been and will continue to play an essential role in injury prevention and control, not only for the care of injured patients, but also in surveillance systems.