Dr. Tran Lam Lan Huong, director of the Health Education and Communication Center stated at a seminar for the campaign to prevent accidents in young children, that a minimum of 20 young lives were lost every day in the country.
The seminar was held in Ho Chi Minh City on June 14. It discussed ways and means to prevent child deaths. More than 7,300 children die of accidents in Vietnam annually and the figure seems to increase every year. Most accidents occur at home, on the way to school or in the school premises.
Five leading causes of death amongst children are drowning, traffic accidents, falling, burning and food poisoning.
Ho Chi Minh City alone recorded 118 child deaths out of the 43,444 accidents under the age of 14 in 2010. More worrisome is the fact that 43 children reportedly committed suicide, according to Phan Thanh Minh, chief of Child Protection Division of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
