3 more firecracker-related injuries as New Year’s Eve draws near — DOH

MANILA, Philippines — Three more cases of firecracker-related injuries have been recorded as New Year’s Eve draws near, the Department of Health (DOH) said Sunday.

The three new cases bring the total number of victims to 46, according to the DOH’s Fireworks-Related Injury (FWRI) Surveillance report. The report covers recorded cases from Dec. 21 to 6 a.m. of Dec. 30.

The health agency said that the latest tally of fireworks and firecracker injury cases is 49 percent lower than the cases reported for the same period last year.

“This is 45 cases lower compared to the same reporting period of 2017 and 129 cases (75 percent) lower than d 5-year average,” DOH said in a statement.

It also noted that out of the 46 individuals who suffered firecracker-related injuries, 41 were male.

The DOH report also showed that 44 of the injuries were caused by firecrackers while two cases were caused by firecracker ingestion.

DOH also said 24 cases were blast or burn injuries without amputation; five cases were blast or burn injuries with amputation; and 15 cases were eye injuries.

In the report, the injuries were inflicted by the use of “boga” or PVC cannon (13), “kwitis” or rocket (5) , triangle firecracker (3), piccolo (3), baby rocket (2), “bawang” (2), camara (2), and “luces” or sparklers (2), and 5-star (2)./muf