Health authorities said that firecracker and fireworks-related injuries in the Cordillera significantly increased by 78 percent from December 21, 2023 to January 6, 2024 during the celebration of the New year revelry compared to the previous reckoning period from December 21, 2022 to January 6, 2023.
Victoria L. Malicdan, senior program officer of the health department’s regional epidemiology and surveillance unit, claimed that the 41 firecracker and fireworks-related injuries that were recorded from December 21, 2023 to January 6, 2024 is 18 cases more than the 23 similar cases that were recorded during the previous reckoning period and 86 percent or 19 cases higher than the 4-year average.
Further, 36 individuals or 88 percent of the victims were males and that the age range of all the injured individuals is from 5 to 62 years old with a median of 26 years old.
Malicdan stipulated that 10 individuals or 24 percent were allegedly intoxicated during the celebration of the New Year revelry.
Kalinga reported the highest number of firecracker and fireworks-related injuries with 13 which is 117 percent more than the 6 previous incidents followed by Baguio City with 12 which is 100 percent higher than the 6 previous incidents; Abra – 8 which is 33 percent higher than the 6 previous incidents; Apayao – 3 which is 300 percent higher than the previous single incident; Benguet – 3 which is 50 percent more than the previous 2 incidents and Ifugao – 1.
From the 2 firecracker and fireworks-related injuries in 2022, Mountain Province was able to realize the desired zero incident primarily because of the vigilance of the public and the stringent monitoring of the concerned local governments and the police force.
Malicdan revealed that there was no blast or burnt injury with amputation that was reported during the recent revelry compared to the single incident that was reported during the previous reckoning period while in terms of blast and burn injuries with no amputation, there was an increase of 68 percent increase that was recorded.
According to her, there was also an increase of 200 percent of eye injury inflicted by firecrackers and fireworks where there were 6 reported cases recently compared to the only 2 cases during the previous reckoning period.
Twenty-two victims were injured in their homes, 14 persons were injured while on the streets while 4 were injured in other areas.
Moreover, 23 of the injuries were active users while the 17 others were passive users.
Malicdan said that 37 of the reported injured individuals were immediately treated in the health facilities and were sent home, 2 were transferred to other health facilities, 1 refused admission while there were no admissions that were made on the health facilities.
Among the recommendations of the health department in the implementation of the Oplan Iwas Paputok include strengthened early collaboration among key stakeholders; proactive monitoring and timely reporting of possible firecracker and fireworks-related injuries in all levels of health care; early advocacies on the safe practice of community fireworks activities by local governments and for the public to seek consultations at their nearest primary health care facilities for appropriate medical intervention. By Dexter A. See
