By Mike Tipton, University of Portsmouth, UK; Twitter: @ProfMikeTipton
If you are interested in the critical link between physiology, pathophysiology and medicine, you need to look no further than the topic of drowning; a pandemic that continues unabated, and for which there is no vaccine.
The World Health Organization estimates that drowning claims the lives of at least 272,000 people each year, that’s over a 1,000 a day and is a figure that represents a gross underestimation as 90% of these deaths occur in third world nations and many go unrecorded, by as much as 50% in some countries (1).
Also, these figures do not include the life-long morbidity suffered by an estimated 7 to 10 times the number of those that die from drowning. In the UK, on average, a person drowns every 20 hours, and we lose one child a week.
Indeed, drowning is a leading global cause of injury-related child deaths, with 43% of drowning deaths occurring in children under the age of 15 years and 25% in children under 5 years of age.
The death toll from drowning is greater than that from tuberculosis, HIV or polio. It is almost two thirds that of malnutrition and well over half that of malaria. In many countries the threat of drowning is increasing, being linked as it is to climate change and rising water levels.
It is these statistics that drive those working in the area of drowning. They include researchers attempting to understand the physiological responses that lead to drowning and other causes of immersion death, those that investigate best methods of search, rescue, and treatment, and those that are lobbying for drowning prevention to be taught in schools, or for flood defences and drain covers to be provided where needed: simple interventions that could make a huge difference.
Physiology provides important insights into the drowning process; it is the application of the understanding of the physiology of immersion that informs those working at the frontline to search, rescue and treat drowning.
Unlike other great public health challenges, there are no broad prevention efforts that target drowning… until now. It was with much celebration that those working in the field received the news on 28 April 2021 that the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) had adopted its first-ever resolution on global drowning prevention (2).
Proposed by Bangladesh and Ireland, and co-sponsored by 80 countries, the resolution provides a comprehensive framework, that includes requests that all 193 member states of the UN: develop a national drowning prevention plan with a set of measurable targets; ensure effective water safety laws are in place; promote the research and development of innovative drowning prevention tools and technology; introduce water safety, swimming and first aid lessons as part of the school curriculum.
The resolution also introduces a new UN World Drowning Prevention Day on 25 July each year to galvanise action. It invites academia, amongst others, to observe this day.
So, today, on the 25 July 2021 you will see lots of initiatives and attention given to drowning prevention by groups like the International Drowning Researchers’ Alliance, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Surf Lifesaving GB, HM Coastguard, the Royal Lifesaving Society, and many other groups in the UK and abroad that work tirelessly to try an eradicate a condition that takes so many lives, many of them young lives (3).
References
- The World Health Organization (2014) Global Report on Drowning: Preventing a leading killer. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/143893/9789241564786_eng.pdf;sequence=1
- https://www.undocs.org/en/A/75/L.76
- International Drowning Researchers’ Alliance http://idra.world/