National Burns Awareness Month

June is National Burns Awareness month. This month-long campaign raises awareness of burn injury, prevention measures and the correct first aid treatments for minor burn injuries. We have partnered with Kidsafe Australia and ANZBA to help spread these important messages within our communities.

Raising awareness

For Burns Awareness Month, we wanted to share two inspirational stories from our paediatric patients, Noah and Tahlia; both suffered a scald burn due to their skin coming in contact with hot water. Scald burns are often accidental injuries that commonly occur within the home. According to the BRANZ 2020-2021 Annual Report, scald burn was the most common cause of burn injury in children (49%); this is also consistent with our data from the Perth Children's Hospital Biobank study, which tells us that scald is the number sub-cause of burn injury in Western Australian Children. We hope to continue to spread burns awareness and safety messages through prevention education such as The Ben & Bella storybook series, and by sharing lived experiences of our incredible patients.

Learn about what happened to Noah and Tahlia's their treatment journey and how they are now by clicking the links below; through sharing their stories, we can continue raising awareness about burn prevention, injury and correct first aid.

Meet Noah, who, at 14 months old, suffered a scald burn to his legs, arm and torso after turning on a hot water tap in the bathroom sink.

Meet Tahlia, who, at age 12, sustained a scald burn injury to her foot after coming into contact with hot water whilst rinsing out containers for recycling.

Stay informed

The ANZBA has released the 12^th Annual Report from the Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand to coincide with National Burns Awareness Month. This report summarises data entered for paediatric and adult patients with acute burn injury who were admitted to one of the 17 specialist burn services in Australia and New Zealand. Staying informed and aware of the causes of burn injury is a essential prevention measure to avoid burn injury. We have summarised the report highlighting the key points that we should all be aware of - you can access this information here.

Correct first aid treatments

If someone experiences a burn injury responding with the correct first aid treatment can dramatically alter patient outcomes and reduce burn severity. A crucial first step is burn cooling which means applying cool running water (between 15-18 degrees) to the burn for 20 minutes within the first hour of the burn but continues to be effective up to three hours.

Benefits of cool running water

Burns First Aid Factsheet

Kidsafe Poster: First Aid Treatment for Minor Burns

Resources

Below are resources that raise awareness on burn injury, safety tips and correct first aid treatments. They can be shared between your networks and used as posters in your homes, workplaces, and community spaces. You can also check out resources created by Kidsafe Australia and ANZBA.

Chemical Burns

Campfire Safety

Hot Water Bottle Safety

Household Hazards

Sun Safety