Community Response to Burn Injuries: Examples from Dhading District of Nepal

Burns are one of the most serious global public health challenges, and Nepal is no exception. This study aims to present national and local-level data regarding burn injuries within Nepal. Similarly, this study shows how the trained rural first responders respond to burn injuries at the community level, with an example from the Dhading district of Nepal. Police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) records were used to describe the national and community-level burn injury patterns. The most common cause of burns was found to be household fire, mainly from cooking. The burn cases are distributed across all ages; however, young age group comprises a notable proportion. Victims who were injured but were still able to move primarily accessed emergency health services by walking to the closest facility. Mainly, burn victims received a dressing and cold sponging service at the primary health center. This study described the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in detail and identified that appropriate training to the community people to respond the burns injuries minimizes the severity of the cases. Lessons learned from this project can be utilized to implement emergency burn injury management for the public and local responders in other rural areas at minimum costs. We recommend establishing burn care instruction in all rural/remote villages and health care centers in Nepal.