Child Mortality in Saudi Arabia (Poisoning)

Child mortality is the death of children below the age of 5 years. Child poisoning that is usually accidental is a universal problem. It is related to low morbidity and mortality. Child mortality in Saudi Arabia has been decreasing but remains consistently high when comparing with other countries globally. In Saudi Arabia, the causes of death include; birth problems, chronic disease, unintentional injury surveillance, fewer resistance infants, congenital anomalies, and many others. This paper focuses on the accidental injuries as a cause of mortality. The argument supports that teaching parents about the dangers of poisoning is better than the strict police rule.

Developing children are at risk as they lack the knowledge of imposed risks. There is a direct relationship between the types of the substance being ingested to the stages of a child’s development (Poison Prevention Packaging, 2015). A baby who is six months old is usually in the learning process of hand to mouth coordination. The mobility of children increases as they reach the age of 2 years and become curious about their environment. They become exposed to the unintentional injury without knowing the danger through their cognitive abilities, degree of dependence and curiosity to experience anything new. There are other kinds of unintentional injuries like accidental poisoning, road accident, fall, drowning, electrical shock and choking. According to a study carried out in Jeddah Saudi Arabia, 87.8% of children less than five years were found to be intoxicated accidentally. It is an implication that the highest percentage causing mortality is ingestion of toxic substances (Al Hazmi, 2015).

Homes are considered to be the most secure and safe place for children. On the contrary, most of these accidents take place in our homes, and this leaves us with an impression that our homes are not the safest place for children. Poisoning in children is common through ingestion of toxic substances that are readily available in our homes (Mohammad et al., 2005). The toxic substances include cleaning products and medicines. According to World Health Organization (WHO), poisoning caused by lead and mercury constitute a high percentage of the child mortality rate in Saudi Arabia. The question addressed is what measures should be put to reduce the unintentional poisoning of children in our homes. There are two solutions deemed to reduce the child mortality rate.

Parents and guardians fail to keep the toxic chemicals safe in their homes. For example, cleaning supplies are not kept out of reach of children but in inappropriate places where they are accessible to children. Drugs containers are not child proof hence posing the danger of unintentional poisoning among children. The Toxicology Department conducted a study in Saudi Arabia and revealed that expose of young children to toxic substances in the form of drugs and medicine due to inappropriate storage mechanisms in households. At least eight drugs stored in every home in Saudi Arabia account for about thirty percent of household keeping medications. It is a significant percentage assuming that there is inappropriately storage of drugs, and then the risk children are exposed to poisoning is very high. Unintended poisoning kills more than 45,000 children each year despite being preventable (Sullivan, 2005). Elimination of poisoning cases is through educating parents about appropriate storage mechanisms.

The solutions towards the reduction of the child mortality caused by unintentional poisoning are as follows. The first solution is; Saudi Arabia food and drug authority has organized conferences to teach parents the risk of child poisoning and the measures in reducing and preventing child mortality. The second solution is the police rule to punish parents due to child poisoning. Both of these solutions are right for the problem and help reduce the child mortality. When comparing the two solutions, we find that one is better than the other.

The first solution that is the Saudi food and drug authority will make it possible to prevent or reduce child’s poisoning (Harvey, 2009). The authority has curriculums and conferences based on most viable measures in reducing and preventing child mortality. The body addresses significant concerns about proper storage of harmful and fatal toxic substances to children and hence reducing the child mortality rates. Implementation of proper and safe storage measures among Saudi Arabian households would help to reduce the mortality rate originating from poisoning. The second solution will address the issue by strict rules of the emergency department of police that will punish the parents or guardians who are negligent. Both solutions are reasonable as their primary motive is to reduce child mortality. The first solution attempts to reduce child mortality through conferences that teach parents on how to store harmful substances. The second solution is punishing parents who are negligent about the issue in attempting to prevent child mortality.

The conference teaching of prevention is better than the police rule of punishment. The meeting instructions give parents the most viable ways of proper storage of the toxic substances that poison the child upon ingestion. Through that knowledge of better storage of the toxic substances, child mortality rates can be reduced significantly. This solution is not violating the parents’ rights or instilling fear to the parents. The strict rule of the police to punish parents can reduce the child mortality rates but is not as effective as the first solution. The police rules are less ethical as they involve severe punishment to parents who are negligent. The parents may have a phobia as they are charged and sued for their negligence by the police department. The parents will not have gained any knowledge about better safe keeping of the poisonous substances away from children’s reach even after the punishment. Conversely, the conference teaching does not involve any punishment for parents but only gives them the knowledge of handling and safekeeping of toxic substances that poison children.

The argument in this paper grants the solution based on teaching parents about preventive precautions in reducing child mortality will be useful as well as beneficial. It will be efficient in the sense that the situation where we have preventive measures of a child being poisoned. Parents and guardians will benefit with the necessary preventive precautions regarding unintentional poisoning of children. A parent who has received the teachings on preventions of child mortality is better than that the one without the teachings. Consequently, the rate of child mortality caused by poisoning will be reduced significantly. On the other hand, the strict rules of the emergency department of police will only sue the parents or guardians who are negligent but will not address the problem of child mortality adequately.

References

Moazzam, M, AM Al-Saigul, M Naguib, and MA Al Alifi. 2009. ‘Pattern Of Acute Poisoning In Al-Qassim Region: A Surveillance Report From Saudi Arabia, 1999-2003.’ East Mediterr Health J 15 (4): 1005-10.

Al Hazmi, Abed. Patterns Of Accidental Poisoning In Children In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Ebook. 1^st ed.,2015.

Harvey, Alison. ‘Injury Prevention And The Attainment Of Child And Adolescent Health.’ Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87, no. 5 (2009): 390-394.

Poison Prevention Packaging: A Guide For Healthcare Professionals. Ebook. 1st ed., 2015.

Roushan, Mohammad Reza Hasanjani, Seyed Ahmad Asgharzadeh Ahmadi, Seyed Mokhtar Smailnejad Gangi, Nasar Janmohammadi, and Mohammad Jafar Soleimani Amiri. ‘Childhood Brucellosis In Babol, Iran.’ Tropical Doctor 35, no. 4 (2005): 229-231.

Sullivan, Michele G. ‘Preventable Conditions Kill 10.6 Million Children’. Family Practice News 35, no. 11 (2005): 26.