Johannesburg – More victims of gender-based violence with acid burns each week are seeking help at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital’s Burns Unit.
According to Professor Adelin Muganza, the director of the Bara Burns Unit, the unit is
seeing more patients who have been doused with acid and set alight.
“It’s sad. Both men and women who have jealous partners are being thrown with acid
and being set alight while being assaulted. We are seeing it more often,” he said.
He reckons that the high incidence of burn injuries, which are also a result of car accidents, shack fires, cable theft and illegal electric connections, is an epidemic in South Africa.
He said children burnt as a result of scalding hot water was still the most common form of injury.
Muganza said they dressed burn wounds of about 70 patients a week.
This excludes the high number of intensive care unit (ICU) patients they have to
treat every day. He, therefore, welcomed the building of the new wing of the Bara Burns Unit, a partnership announced this week, between Wits University and the hospital.
A donation of R70-million from the Roy McAlpine Foundation made the renovation possible and the goal is to have it completed by December next year.
The unit will be named the Wits Roy McAlpine Burns Unitafter its benefactor.
Founded in 1991, the unit is jointly managed by Wits University and the Gauteng Department of Health, and is already highly specialised.
More than 250 adults and 500 children with severe burns come to the unit annually, not
only from Soweto but also from surrounding areas, as well as patients from the rest of South Africa and the continent who cannot afford private healthcare services.
Muganza said patients from the Milpark Private Centre were also often referred.
Muganza, whose research interests include skin substitutes for burn injuries and new technologies, said with the improvements they would be able to treat more patients and enhance research and training.
“One of our goals is to have a skin bank and a tissue engineering laboratory where synthetic and skin tissue for wound cover can be developed. We will no longer have to depend on skin from foreign countries because we have the expertise to do it
here.
This will greatly enhance the unit’s capacity and also allow for research to be performed
to enhance the science and treatment of burns.
We will also have more ICU beds and improve our physiotherapy and occupational
therapy sections,” he said.
He said that the goal was also to rope in retired nurses who would get a dedicated office and go out and educate communities on preventing burns and also what to immediately
do when faced with burns.
“Many severe cases can be prevented. We do send nurses out to schools and communities and taxi ranks to teach people the dos and don’ts when faced
with burns.
People put ointments and other chemicals like toothpaste and so forth, which causes more harm than good.
“We advise patients or those who help them to only use water, carefully remove clothes, cover with a clean cloth and proceed to get medical care,” he said.
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