Burn injuries in South Africa

Abstract

Burn injury remains one of the neglected epidemics in South Africa. Funding to specialised units, which are hopelessly small in number, is shamefully inadequate, as resources are channelled to the more politically sensitive HIV and TB crises. The labour intensive and very unglamorous nature of burns management does not attract health care practitioners, nurses and therapists to the field. High morbidity and mortality rates, difficult and extensive wounds, disfigured patients, distraught relatives, all contribute to the emotional strain on dedicated Burn Unit care givers, who are already greatly under-resourced and in desperately short supply.