Guy's Hospital

Abstract

<h3>Rationale and background</h3> Drowning is the first leading cause of death of Thai children under the age of 15 years old with the mortality per 100 000 population is between 9.3 and 11.5 (2004–2008). <h3>Objective</h3> To advocate child drowning prevention in Thailand. <h3>Methodology</h3> The magnitude of child drowning problems were proposed by mass media and communication especially with focusing on disseminated information that accompanied with important and attractive situation such as Songkran Festival and Loy Krathong Day. The advocated policy was to execute the public policy to be substantial. Implementation of the specific measure showed the interest of executives. <h3>Result</h3> The Ministry of Public Health and relevant agencies also assigned child drowning prevention measure such as established the child drowning prevention committees, the child swim able policy, the Day of Child Drowning Prevention, given the knowledge of child drowning prevention policy to the parents who take their children for vaccination in every hospital, child drowning surveillance and investigation, pilot project of model development of child drowning prevention, disseminated the information through mass media with supported from the private sector, and driving for adjusting the related legislation on child drowning prevention. After the implementation, the mortality of child drowning has decreased from 11.1 in 2006, to 9.8 and 9.3 in the years 2007 and 2008, respectively. <h3>Conclusion and recommendations</h3> As a result of wider dissemination of information and implementation of the child drowning prevention specific measure, executives have become a top priority national issue.