Johannesburg, 3 September 2003 -- Mortality rate from road traffic accident injuries in Africa is the highest in the world, costing the Region $7.3 billion or 1% of its Gross Domestic Product annually, the World Health Organization says in a report released Monday in Johannesburg. 
"The most affected groups of people are pedestrians, passengers and cyclists," states the report. It attributes the high rate of road accidents to factors such as inadequate road design; excessive alcohol consumption; speeding, under-utilization of seat belts and child restraints; unsafe vehicular design; poor maintenance of vehicles and roads; insufficient training of vehicle users, and a lack of implementation of road safety guides.

The report, which examines injury prevention and control in the Region, identifies conflicts and interpersonal violence as other leading causes of mortality and disability related to injuries.

Other causes of injury-related mortality and disability listed in the report are: fire-related burns, drowning, suicide, falls and poisonings, child abuse, neglect of the elderly (now regarded as a form of 'family violence'), rape, child marriage, child trafficking and harmful traditional practices such as Female Genital Mutilation.

The report says: "In the year 2000, in the African Region alone, an estimated 725,000 people died as a result of injuries, accounting for 7% of all deaths in Africa and 15% of worldwide injury-related deaths." About 116,000 of these deaths were due to due to interpersonal violence, 27,000 were due to suicide or "self-directed violence", and 167,000 due to collective violence, with almost half of these deaths occurring among young males in the economically active age range of 15 to 44 years.

Sections of the report are devoted to war-related injuries which account for the highest number of injury-related deaths in Africa. Studies quoted in the report indicate that in 1997, 25 new conflicts were identified in the Region, and that the proportion of non-combatants among those killed as a direct result of conflict was likely to exceed 50%. Many who survive direct injury are permanently disabled and suffer from a variety of psychosocial abnormalities following or resulting from a disease or injury or treatment..

"Injuries are costly," the report says, "(because) emergency department treatment, hospitalization and long-term care often divert scarce resources from other development priorities. Injuries may cause lifelong disabilities and result in other health problems that may have serious consequences for individuals, families, communities and health care systems."

The health, economic and social impacts of injury and violence are more significant in poor countries and for disadvantaged populations because injuries may lead to poverty, which is a risk factor for injury and violence.

Arguing that improvement in health requires a secure foundation in peace, the report urges countries to "invest in sustaining peace and preventing or solving conflicts."

It also recommends that countries should embark on awareness-raising programmes on injury and violence prevention; develop and implement pertinent information systems; prioritize research to bridge information gaps, and build partnerships with appropriate stakeholders. Such partnerships would serve to increase the visibility of injury and violence prevention as a priority, and to coordinate activities for prevention and control.

"While much can be achieved by grassroots organizations, individuals and institutions, the success of public health efforts ultimately depends on political commitment. This is as vital at the national level where policy, legislative and overall funding decisions are made as it is at the provincial, district and municipal levels where responsibility of day-to-day administration of policies and programmes rests," the report concludes.

The report, prepared by the Brazzaville-based WHO Regional Office for Africa, is to be discussed by Health Ministers from 46 countries in the WHO African Region meeting for their 53rd Regional Committee session from 1 to 5 September in Johannesburg, South Africa.

For further information, please contact

Samuel T. Ajibola
Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6, Brazzaville, Congo. 
E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int
 Tel:+ 47 241 39378; Fax: + 47 241 39513
In Johannesburg: 072 722 5680