Injury or trauma prevention describes the transdisciplinary efforts needed to reduce injuries in a community. These efforts are not limited to events preceding the injury scenario, but also cover the post-injury phase as there are still many opportunities in this phase to prevent death and serious disability.

The Trauma Society's injury prevention arm is dedicated to emergency care in South Africa and to care of injured patients from the acute scenario, to the hospital ward and into the rehabilitation stage of injury care.We believe in adding our voice to other injury prevention efforts to bring about a unified, effective solution to injury prevention and injury care in South Africa.

The second biggest cause of premature death and disability in South Africa is interpersonal violence, behind HIV/Aids. Tuberculosis occupies the third spot followed by road traffic injuries in fourth. Injuries are a huge burden to South Africa and need to be addressed urgently. Besides violence and road traffic injuries, other injuries such as burns, drowning or near-drowning and falls also deserve attention in our efforts to bring about a safer, healthier South Africa.

The UN Global Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) launches internationally on the 11th of May 2011 and is an excellent injury prevention initiative, involving many disciplines, which aims to save five million lives globally over the next ten years. For more on the Global Decade of Action, go to http://www.who.int/roadsafety/decade_of_action/en/index.html and take a look at our articles in the news section.