Injury surveillance in six hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This surveillance was initiated to see the hospital burden of injuries and as a pilot to test the injury surveillance integration in Ethiopia.

Injury is becoming the major health problems in low income countries. Though it is important cause of mortality and morbidity, due attention is not given by the low-income countries.

This surveillance was conducted in six major hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from February 1, 2003 to August 31, 2003.

In total, 9000 patients related to injury visited the hospitals in this period. Majority of the injury patients visited the hospitals were males (73.2%) and the majority of the injury patients (72.5%) were in the age groups 15-44 years old. Struck/hit (45.7%) and road traffic injury (24.2%) were the leading causes of injury and falls with 11.5% follows the two. In terms of intent, 65.3% were unintentional and 31.8% were related to assaults.

Injuries are important problems for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and needs further community based study to determine the burden in the society. The surveillance system should be also integrated with the national health surveillance system.