MANILA, Philippines?The country is not ready for mass injuries from burns and explosions similar to the carnage in Mumbai last month and in Bali six years ago, according to the country?s leading burn experts.

According to Dr. Glenn Genuino, chief of the burn section of the Philippine General Hospital, the country does not have enough facilities to treat a large number of major to moderate burn victims.

In the entire country, there are only four hospitals with specialized burn units constantly kept sterile to prevent infection.

Three are in Metro Manila?Philippine General Hospital with 12 beds, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center with eight beds, and the East Avenue Medical Center with six beds. The fourth is the Davao Medical Center.

All are public hospitals.

Genuino, president of the Philippine Society for Burn Injuries (PSBI), said the high maintenance cost of a burn unit discourages private hospital owners from putting up one since most burn victims are poor.

?Most of the ones involved in burn injuries are those in the lower socio-economic status, so if you?re a businessman, it?s not a money-earner for hospitals,? he said.

Only fully aware of the lack of facilities, Genuino said the PSBI trains doctors and nurses from other tertiary hospitals in burn management.

Dr. Hector Santos, chief of the plastic surgery section of the East Avenue Medical Center and former president of the PSBI, also said the country?s hospitals are not ready to attend to mass burn injuries.

?Are we prepared for mass injuries? Manpower-wise, our specialists are ready,? said Santos, president of the Philippine Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons.

?Facilities-wise, we are not ready. At East Avenue Medical Center, we can accommodate twice as many [victims as available beds], but on a mass basis, it?s not enough,? he added.

Santos recalled that during the Ozone Disco fire on March 18, 1996, they received 60 victims within 20 minutes.

The disco fire killed 160 young people and injured 95 others.

During the last major eruption of Mayon Volcano in 2001, all the victims from the exploding sulfur and lava flows were transported from Bicol to Manila.

Santos was part of the Philippine medical team sent to the Indonesian island resort of Bali during the terrorist bomb attacks in October 2002 that killed 202 people and injured 209 others.

He said for seven straight days, he performed skin grafting three times a day to save those who sustained major burn injuries.

?They didn?t have a burn unit. They had one plastic surgeon on the whole island, so other countries helped them,? he said.

The East Avenue Medical Center recently renovated its burn unit with six beds at a cost of P20 million. An operating room was put up exclusively for burn victims, at a cost of P6 million.

Genuino and Santos said a patient needs between P20,000 and P30,000, to as much as P50,000 a day just for the dressing of wounds, including antibiotics and anti-bacterial creams.

?It?s expensive. That?s why we ask patients to pitch in,? Santos said.

Genuino said years ago, the mortality rate at PGH was 26 per cent, meaning one in four victims of moderate to major burn injuries would die.

?Now the mortality rate is eight to nine percent, which is comparable to the rest of the world,? he said.

The number of burn victims, however, has been increasing through the years.

Genuino said in 1993, they used to admit 76 victims of major and moderate burn injuries at PGH for the entire year. In 2004, they admitted 276 patients.