Injury is a disease; in terms of mortality it is the largest of all the current pandemics. 13% of Africans will die an injury death. This poverty related pandemic has been a CNIS priority since 1995.
Injury control, the combination of prevention and safety promotion, reduces the demand for surgery. Prevention requires the determination of injury priorities, development and implementation of effective interventions. This includes both surveillance and training.
Safety promotion is the process of reduction in the risk of injury from violence and dangerous environments. Safety promotion is particularly important for the most vulnerable populations, namely women and children. Child protection within CNIS activities concerns traffic safety, child abuse, and the war affected child. The issues of gender-based violence include spousal abuse, female genital mutilation and vesical vaginal fistula. Injury prevention and safety promotion is directly linked to the needs for surgical and obstetrical skills training. CNIS surgical skills program and injury prevention program are interrelated and mutually supportive. CNIS has influenced government priorities and introduced effective interventions, in particular the areas of traffic safety and violence among war affected children.
CNIS works in some countries that are, or have been, in a state of conflict. Learning from its Peacebuilding initiatives in Northern Uganda has allowed for replication of programming for war-affected children in Northern Ethiopia.
In 1995, when the CNIS initiated its injury prevention and safety promotion projects, there was no infrastructure for safety promotion and injury prevention in Africa. Since then, together with African partners, we have established the Injury Control Center – Uganda (ICC-U), Injury Control Center Tanzania (ICC-T), and the Injury Prevention Initiative for Africa (IPIFA).
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