Road accidents number one cause of accidental deaths amongst UAE children

Ministry of Health data unveiled that road and traffic accidents are the number one cause of childhood death in the UAE.

The Baby Memories Campaign will reach out to new mothers across Dubai and provide road and traffic safety information for their children. Baby Memories will provide new mothers with an informational tool kit enabling them to combine all aspects of child health such as vaccination schedules, childhood illnesses, breastfeeding in addition to providing information on the core element of the campaign, road and traffic safety.

The tool kit will be distributed to new mothers in Dubai's hospitals, starting at Al Wasl Hospital. New mothers can enroll into the Baby Memories Club, free of charge, once they have filled out a registration form.

Speaking on behalf of the Dubai Health Authority, Dr. Fatima Al Attar, Specialist S.R. Family Physician Head of Community Program Section- PHC, said: "Overall, 6,146 children in the UAE were involved in different accidents between 2001 and 2007, many of which could have been prevented with proper care from parents and children themselves. Together we hope to give parents the ability to understand what constitutes safe behavior and act in their children's best interest when driving or allowing them to play near roads."

The Health Authority of Abu Dhabi also reported in 2007 that the UAE currently has the highest rate of road death in the world, in spite of modern cars, good roads and good driving conditions.

Safe Kids Worldwide launched over 20 years ago, has received awards from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Public Health Association for outstanding services in the area of injury prevention practice and advocacy. Together with Johnson's Baby, part of the Johnson and Johnson, the team is expecting to launch various initiatives across the UAE and Gulf Region as the preventable children accidental injuries are in rise due lack of education of new mothers.

Dr. Nahed Sabry, Professional Program Manager at Johnson & Johnson said:

"This is part of the Safe Kids initiative that we hope will reduce the preventable children accident significantly. Being a mother is its own reward for any woman, however mothers aren't given a guidebook or user's manual on how to be a mom. Johnson's Baby has helped educate mothers in the region for decades, in close association with government authorities. Child safety and health has been always the central point of Safe Kids & Johnson's Baby throughout our product develop and in our community activities."