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Global Health Matters >
Articles in this issue > FIC Launches New
Program on Trauma and Injury in Developing Countries
FIC Launches New Program on Trauma
and Injury in Developing Countries
FIC chose World Health Day (April 7), which this year focused on
road traffic accidents, to announce the launch of a new program
on trauma and injury in developing countries. This new program was
cited by both Deputy HHS Secretary Claude Allen and Acting Assistant
Secretary for Health Cristina Beato in remarks they made at World
Health Day Events at the Washington, DC offices of PAHO. The program
addresses the growing burden of morbidity and mortality in the developing
world due to trauma and injury. Support will come from FIC together
with seven NIH partners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and PAHO. The
goal of the program, which contributes to raising awareness of the
human and economic costs caused by trauma and injury, is to build
skills and knowledge on how to most effectively address these daunting
problems in resource-constrained settings.
FIC and its partners are committing approximately $7,000,000 over
5 years to support projects related to prevention, treatment at
the scene, emergency medical facilities and services, post-acute
care, development of low-cost prosthetic devices, and long-term
care, including rehabilitation. Training may also focus on topics
in low-cost technologies such as X-ray and ultrasound, ventilators,
optimal resuscitation fluids, blood substitutes, and materials to
cover wounds in burn victims. The focus on people and skills will
have pay-off not only abroad but potentially back home as well to
the extent that new technologies are transferable.
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