83 Burn Injuries in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Global Burden of Disease Study

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Over 1 million burns occur in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) each year leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Financial constraints, social stigma, political strife, inaccessible healthcare facilities, limited perioperative resources, and low workforce capacity results in steep barriers to obtaining timely and effective burn care. This study set out to better define the burn burden as well as the age and gender-related disparities within SSA, to identify specific sub-regions and countries that would benefit most from targeted interventions to enhance burn care. Methods Data for all 46 SSA countries were acquired from the 2017 Global Burden of Disease (GBD17) database of the Global Health Data Exchange. Information regarding fire, heat, and hot substance-related injuries was derived from 17,792 data sources to estimate burn-related incidence, deaths, and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) by year, sex, age, and location from 1990 to 2017. Summative statistics were created for burn incidence, deaths, DALYs, and mortality ratio (deaths: incidence; %). Spatial mapping was performed to identify burn burden for specific regions and countries. Results An estimated 28,127,199 burns occurred in SSA from 1990–2017. On average, SSA accounted for 16% of worldwide burns, 21% of burn deaths, and 25% of DALYs. Furthermore, the mortality rate was 2.2 times the global average and remained nearly double the entire 27-year period. While all SSA regions had higher incidence, deaths, and DALYs compared to the global cohort, the Southern SSA region consistently had the highest incidence (211 cases per 100,000), deaths (7 per 100,000), and DALYs (355 years per 100,000) throughout the time period, with Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe having the highest rates. In contrast to gender similarities globally for burn indicators, all regions within SSA showed higher incidence rates (144 vs 136 cases per 100,000), deaths (5.4 vs 4.7 deaths per 100,000), and DALYs (289 vs 272 years per 100,000) for men than women when age standardized. Conclusions With an estimated 1.4 million burn injuries in 2017, SSA accounted for over 15% of all worldwide burns and 20% of global burn deaths. Although all trended rates improved over the years for each country, they were consistently worse and slower to improve in all regions of SSA compared to the rest of the world. While both Central and Southern SSA regions had the greatest burn burden, burns in Central SSA more significantly impacted those under 5 years whereas Southern SSA saw the greatest burden on the 15–49-year age group.