63 firecracker-related injuries recorded in Soccsksargen before, after New Year

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COTABATO CITY — The Department of Health (DOH) monitored 63 firecracker-related injuries, among them incurred by a 5-year-old boy, in the Soccsksargen region 10 days before the New Year and the day after.

Dr. Dyan Zubelle Parayao, head of the DOH-12 Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu), said the number of those injured by firecrackers from Dec. 21 last year to Jan. 2 this year was 133 per cent higher than the 27 cases registered in the same period the previous year. It was 127 per cent higher than the five-year average of 28 cases.

Of the 63 who were hurt, 46 were actively lighting fireworks mostly at home. At least 13 of them were intoxicated at the time of injury, Parayao said in the latest Resu bulletin.

Resu also said that 31, or most of the cases, happened in South Cotabato; 15 in Cotabato province; nine in Sarangani, and four each in Sultan Kudarat and General Santos City, respectively.

Parayao said the youngest who got injured this year was a 5-year old boy, although the bulletin did not specify how he got injured or why or which town he came from. The eldest was a 68-year old man.

Among the patients, 49 had been treated and sent home; six admitted, three referred to another hospital, while five were refused hospital admission.

The fingers of at least two victims required amputation.