Injuries cause more than five million deaths every year, resulting in high economic and social costs for communities around the globe. These costs are greater in low and middle-income countries, where public health systems have yet to prioritize injuries as a major health concern, despite the cost-effective methods available to prevent them.
Through research, collaboration and training, the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit strives to identify effective solutions to the growing burden of injuries in low and middle-income populations, influence public policy and practice, and advance the field of injury prevention throughout the world. The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Injuries, Violence and Accident Prevention.
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May 21, 2012
New Data on Unintentional Childhood Injuries in Pakistan In a recently published article, Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) and collaborators from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Aga Khan University (DEM-AKU) examine unintentional childhood home injuries in Karachi, Pakistan. JH-IIRU director, Adnan Hyder and AKU-DEM director, Junaid Razzak amongst other colleagues participated in this surveillance study.
The article, “Understanding Unintentional Childhood Home Injuries: Pilot Surveillance Data from Karachi, Pakistan,” which appears BMC Research Notes, analyzed results of a previous pilot surveillance study done on unintentional childhood injuries presenting to emergency departments in both public and private hospitals in Karachi. Their findings revealed that of the approximately 400 injuries that occurred in the home, falls made up the majority at 59%, followed by dog bites, burn injuries and road traffic injuries. Most of these injuries occurred during play time. Fifty-four percent of the children were between 5-11 years old and 41% were between 1-4 years old.
This kind of analysis not only helps to define the kinds of unintentional injuries that are most prominent among hospitals in a particular area, but also help researchers concentrate intervention and control strategies, such as defining and adhering to building standards for homes, controlling stray dogs and installing traffic calming measures in residential areas.
Like JH-IIRU, the Department of Emergency Medicine at Aga Khan University (DEM-AKU) is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Emergency Medicine and this collaborative project represents collaborating centers working together to better understand the burden of injuries in low income countries.
To access this article, click here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337295/?tool=pubmed
To find out more about unintentional childhood injuries, contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu May 14
JH-IRU Strengthens RS-10 In-Country Collaborations with Training and Capacity Development
With an estimated 1.2 million people dying in each year, road traffic crashes are a serious, but sadly, often overlooked disease burden around the world. This burden is more severe in low- and middle-income countries, where road traffic fatality rates are double what they are in developed countries.
To address this burgeoning trend, in 2010 and with funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) joined a consortium of six partners in the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS-10), a five-year initiative dedicated to reducing the burden of road traffic injuries in ten low- and middle-income countries by evaluating and implementing road safety solutions in places where interventions are needed the most.
The goal of the project is simple: save lives by providing evidence for stronger road safety interventions around the world. But the IIRU team can’t accomplish this goal alone. In order to be effective, they depend on local personnel in each country to not only help develop strong ties within each targeted community, but to conduct evaluations and collect data at each site. To that end, the JH-IIRU team has created a training and capacity development component of the RS-10 project.
Since the project’s inception, and through a program built on a country-specific mission, a sound public health approach, and scientific rigor, the JH-IIRU addresses the basic sciences of public health, a social science component, and health systems analysis with a special focus on ethical and cultural issues. JH-IIRU has developed and employed a concerted, three-pronged strategy for capacity development comprising of 1) Learning by doing 2) Courses and 3) Workshops.
Led by JH-IIRU Associate Director, Abdulgafoor M. Bachani, in the first two years of the program these three approaches have yielded impressive results and continue to do so. In each country, JH‐IIRU collaborates with local research groups or universities to facilitate data collection for monitoring and evaluation. In this learning by doing approach, the JH-IIRU staff trains local collaborators for data collection through activities such as observational studies, road-side interviews, database creation and data analysis, to name a few. 
Participants learning how to conduct observational studies in Cambodia.
Helmet use observational study.
The important results of this work are showcased in the special issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.
Building on existing coursework at JHSPH, JH-IIRU has also developed and modified courses specific to the global burden of road traffic injuries. Working to create live (in-person) and online versions of many of their offerings, the team offers a sequence of four courses to comprise an innovative program in Road Traffic Injury Prevention and Control. These courses combine the expertise at JH-IIRU with the specific local needs of participating countries. Free access to course materials for two of the courses via the OpenCourseWare (OCW) system at JHU is already available, while the remaining two classes will be made available shortly. This long-distance learning option makes effective training for health and allied professionals in each country possible.
Finally, since 2010, the JH-IIRU has conducted workshops in each of the 10 countries, which have been tailored to meet local needs. More than 445 individuals from each country have been trained in topics ranging from data collection and management, to evaluation methods for road safety, to handing of data for injury surveillance. Recently, members of the JH-IIRU team hosted workshops in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The National Workshop on Evaluation Methods for Road Safety focused on topics such as evaluation designs, data collection methodologies, database creation and management, data analysis, and dissemination of findings, while at the same time provided an opportunity for cross-country collaboration.
In an article which appeared in Cambodia’s Koh Sentepheap newspaper, attendee H.E. Mr. Peou Maly, Deputy Secretary General of General Secretariat of the National Road Safety Committee, applauded the workshop, saying he firmly believed it would contribute to efforts of the Royal Government of Cambodia in reducing the number of road crashes.
Participants register for a training workshop.
In Kenya, JHU-IIRU held a training workshop in March to train Naivasha district hospital data collectors and hospital administrators on the data collection for the trauma registry.
An example of a trauma registry form, Naivasha Hospital
And in Russia, JHU-IIRU held workshops in February and March 2012. Seventy professors and data collectors from Ivanovo University were trained to conduct both observational studies and roadside surveys on seatbelt use and speeding during a two- day workshop. A three-day workshop to address data gaps in surveillance and registry systems was attended by 40 representatives from the Ivanovo Ministry of Health, Lipetsk Ministry of Health, Ivanovo Regional Accident and Trauma Centre, and Lipetsk Regional Accident and Trauma Centre. Members of the Lipetsk Regional Accident and Emergency Trauma Centre indicated that the data collection approach they learned will help them not only to build their own data collection system for collecting and reporting the data within the RS-10 project, but also help to improve their own data collection processes in their daily work. It is vital, attendees said, to have their daily data collection work verified with police in order to ensure the quality of the collected data.
Attendees at a workshop in Ivanovo, Russia
In addition to these in-country workshops, JH‐IIRU has also facilitated cross-country learning through a special session at the Safety 2010 World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in London, and a collaborators workshop in Baltimore in October 2011. These workshops made possible important cross‐country discussions on data collection strategies, standardizing methods across countries, and challenges as well as planning for more effective evaluation strategy in each country. Based on the success of these sessions, JH-IIRU is exploring hosting a scientific session on RS‐10 at theWorld Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in New Zealand, 2012.
Training and capacity development is a vital part of the RS-10 project that will help ensure in-country collaborators, partners and researchers are an integral and effective part of the projects efforts to reduce the growing burden of road traffic injuries worldwide.
To find out more, please contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu
May 7, 2012
JH-IIRU Publishes Paper on Childhood Unintentional Injuries with Aga Khan University Collaborators
Members of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU), including director, Adnan Hyder and associate director, Aruna Chandran, along with colleagues from Aga Khan University (AKU) in Pakistan, recently published a paper in the International Journal of Pediatrics.
The article, titled, “Childhood Unintentional Injuries: Need for a Community-Based Home Injury Risk Assessment in Pakistan,” addresses the dearth of printed materials about home injury prevention in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as compared to the availability of comparable information in high income countries (HICs). The paper also examines the development of two tools for home hazard reduction: an in-home tutorial and an educational pamphlet in preparation for a proposed study, the Global Childhood Unintentional Injury Surveillance-Phase 2, Pakistan (GCUIS-Pak). The GCUIS-Pak would test the implementation and acceptability of the tools in two neighborhoods in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi.
Additionally, the GCUIS-Pak is part of ongoing collaborative efforts between the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/International Injury Research Unit and Aga Khan University/Department of Emergency Medicine in Pakistan. In 2005, JHU-IIRU partnered with Aga Khan University in the development of a child injury surveillance project that resulted in the development of a system with great potential for developing countries, supported by the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention at the World Health Organization, Geneva (published in 2009 – Hyder AA et al). The program also hopes to raise awareness about the importance of child injury and trauma research and foster collaboration among health professionals and researchers in Pakistan, while establishing linkages and partnerships with the broader international injury research community.
To access the paper, click here.
To find out more about the ICTIRT or other JH-IIRU collaborative efforts , contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu
April 30, 2012
JH-IIRU Contributes Chapter to Injury Research Book
Recently, JH-IIRU team members, Senior Technical Advisor David Bishai and Associate Director, Abdulgafoor Bachani, contributed a chapter to Injury Research: Theories, Methods, and Approaches, edited by Guohua Li from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Susan P. Baker, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In the chapter, “Injury Costing Frameworks,” Drs. Bishai and Bachani examine three approaches to measuring the costs of injuries: the human capital, willingness to pay and general equilibrium framework and offer a guide to how one would go about costing injuries. Cost information is vital to the decision-making process when developing preventive strategies because it allows for a comparison of the costs that can be prevented once an intervention is chosen versus the cost of the implementation of that intervention.
Injury Research: Theories, Methods and Approaches is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary look into the field of injury and violence prevention with contributions from leaders in the field of injury research.
Additional information on the book can be found here: http://www.springer.com/medicine/book/978-1-4614-1598-5
To find out more about the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, contact us at iiru@jhsph.edu
April 26, 2012
International Injury Research Unit Students Receive Endowed Awards
Please join the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit as we recognize three of our students for receiving International Health Endowed Awards.
Ashai Jafri, PhD, Health Systems, is the recipient of the Robert D. and Helen S. Wright Fund. Established in 1983 by family members of former International Health faculty member, Robert Wright, MD, MPH ’40, this scholarship provides support for a continuing doctoral student who expects to contribute to the improvement of public health in Africa, particularly Nigeria.
Katherine Allen, PhD, Health Systems, received the Baker, Reinke, Taylor Scholarship in International Health. Established in 2004, this scholarship commemorates over 100 combined years of dedicated public health service by Drs. Timothy D. Baker, William Reinke and Carl E. Taylor, who were instrumental in establishing the field of international health as a distinct discipline. This fund supports graduate students in the Department of International Health, with preference given to students working in organization of health delivery systems, community based healthcare or injury control in less developed countries.
 Selena J. An, MSPH, Health Systems, is the recipient of the Diana Hess Memorial Fund. Also established in 1983, this fund provides an annual scholarship to students in the Department of International Health and is based on academic and professional accomplishments. Preference is given to those planning to work in Africa, but is not a requirement for the award.
 Additionally, Qingfeng Li, research assistant with JH-IIRU, has also been selected to receive an additional year of support from the Endowed Student Support Fund award.
The Endowed Students Support Fund Awards are highly competitive and we wish to congratulate all recipients for their hard work and accomplishments.
For additional information on all student scholarships, click here: http://www.jhsph.edu/SFR/ESS/index.html?dept_abbrev=IH&action=search
April 23, 2012
JH-IIRU Team Members Published in the Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Public Health Research Journal
Epidemic Proportions, the Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Public Health Research Journal, recently published an article by JH-IIRU director, Adnan A. Hyder, with contributions from Jeffrey C. Lunnen, IIRU’s research program coordinator.
The article, entitled, “Global Decade of Action for Road Safety, 2011-2020: Time to Stop the Carnage on the Roads” highlights JH-IIRU’s participation in the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, as well as the work the unit is doing with the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS-10). In an effort to show the application of public health principles for undergraduate students, Dr. Hyder explains the purpose of the program, using the work the team has done in Mexico as an example of what’s been done and what needs to be done to reduce the burden of road traffic injuries. He also stresses the importance of the knowledge being generated in the project. This information will not only support the investments being made by governments and leaders such as Michael Bloomberg, but, perhaps most importantly, it will also provide evidence for stronger road safety interventions.
You can access the full article in the latest issue of Epidemic Proportions here.
April 20, 2012
IIRU Launches Special Issue with Seminar
On April 18th, as part of the effort to draw attention to the growing burden of road traffic injuries, the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) launched “Public Health Burden of Road Traffic Injuries: An Assessment from Ten Low- and Middle-Income Countries,” a special issue of Traffic Injury Prevention. A noontime seminar at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, which featured panelists from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), two of the Road Safety in 10 Countries project consortium partners, marked the occasion.
Guest panelists Margie Peden from WHO and Gayle DiPietro from GRSP joined JH-IIRU Director Adnan Hyder and Senior Technical Advisor, David Bishai to announce the special issue, which highlights the work the RS-10 Project is doing. This landmark publication includes 11 scientific papers jointly authored with 50 colleagues from JH-IIRU and their in-country collaborators that contribute much-needed new knowledge to the burgeoning issue of road traffic injuries in low- and middle- income countries.
L-R: Gayle DiPietro, Adnan Hyder, Margie Peden and David Bishai
Gayle DiPietro
Margie Peden
To read more about the event, click here.
To access the special issue of Traffic Injury Prevention, clickhere.
To find out more about the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit and the Road Safety In 10 Countries Project, contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu.
April 9, 2012
Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Associate Director Publishes New Paper Drinking and Driving Disparities in North and South America
In a newly published article in Addiction, Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit associate director Aruna Chandran, MD, MPH, along with Flavio Pechansky, MD, PhD from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, examine the disparity that exists in northern and southern American countries with regard to drinking and driving prevention strategies.
In “Why don’t northern American solutions to drinking and driving work in southern America?,” the researchers—using Brazil as a case example for southern American countries—explore why such a disparity exists. The paper highlights examples and experiences from the North American countries of the United States and Canada—where DWI trends have been known for decades and the association between alcohol consumption and increased road traffic crashes has been well-established—in comparison with Brazil, a country that is still struggling to provide baseline data.
This lack of objective, systematically collected alcohol-associated driving data limits both the ability to implement and enforce specific prevention strategies and determine if proven prevention efforts from North America can be transferred effectively to the south.
In the paper, the Dr. Chandran and her colleagues in Brazil proposed a three-pronged approach to address the north-south gap: 1) systematic collection of data on road traffic crash/injury/death rates as well as risk factor data 2) passage of laws (within a framework that prevents legal circumventing of punishment) that requires blood alcohol concentration testing compliance and 3) stipulation of appropriate training and availability of proper equipment to the police along with vigilant enforcement.
It is the researchers' hope that lessons learned from North American countries can be applied to lower-performing countries in South America.
To access the full article, click here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03731.x/abstract
To find out more about the IIRU, contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu
April 2, 2012
New Publication Examines the Health and Social Impact of Unintentional Injuries
Members of JH-IIRU team, including emergency medicine resident, Sarah Stewart de Ramirez, director Adnan A. Hyder, trauma research coordinator Hadley K. Herbert, and associate director Kent Stevens, recently published a paper on unintentional injuries in the Annual Review of Public Health. The article, entitled, “Unintentional Injuries: Magnitude, Prevention and Control,” examines the health and social impact of injury, injury data availability and injury prevention interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 80% of all injury deaths that occur annually are unintentional in nature, and the number of people who experience life-long disability and socioeconomic loss as a result of unintentional injuries (and their affected family members) results in nearly 140 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually.
In the article, the research team examines the challenges not only associated with capturing accurate burden of injury data in LMICs, but also with implementing effective prevention efforts. The team concludes that a health systems-based approach—which includes prevention, prehospital, hospital and rehabilitation care and analysis of the cost-effectiveness of each component-- is essential to successful future efforts to decrease the burden of unintentional injuries.
Click here for the full article.
To learn more about unintentional injuries and the International Injury Research Unit, contact us.
March 26, 2012
Bloomberg Philanthropies in India to Promote Reducing Road Traffic Injuries and Tobacco Use The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) is currently working with a consortium of partners on the Road Safety in 10 Countries Project (RS-10), an initiative that aims to improve road safety in low- and middle-income countries around the world. The project, which is funded with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the World Health Organization, is evaluating and implementing road safety solutions where they are needed most. Dr. Kelly Henning, head of global health programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, recently visited India, one of the 10 targeted countries, to promote two important programs: The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco and the Bloomberg Global Road Safety Program. The Bloomberg Global Road Safety Program is a five-year, $125 million effort to reverse global deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes. Program partners, including JH-IIRU, are supporting countries like India to strengthen and implement proven solutions through key legislation on motorcycle helmets, seat-belts, drinking and driving, and speed; improving sustainable urban transport; incorporating safety in road infrastructure projects; and, monitoring and evaluating traffic-related deaths, injuries and policy effectiveness To read the full article, click here: To learn more about the Global Road Safety Program, please visit http://www.mikebloomberg.com/ To learn more about JH-IIRU and the RS-10 Project, click here or contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu March 15, 2012
JHSPH/JH-IIRU Faculty Member's Work Profiled in JHU Magazine
JHU Magazine, a quarterly publication for alumni, faculty and friends of the university, recently featured the work associate professor of international health, Adnan Hyder, is doing in his capacity as the director of Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU).
"Troubled Waters" highlights the research Hyder is doing in South Asia on child drowning prevention interventions, specifically in Bangladesh, where it's estimated that one in five young child deaths are attributable to drowning. The work he and his colleagues are doing is raising public awareness of what could be characterized as a largely unreported epidemic. It's also shedding light on the difficulties injury prevention researchers encounter as they pursue support for a global health burden that often gets overlooked.
To read the full article, click here.
To find out more about drowning prevention, contact the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit at IIRU@jhsph.edu. March 8, 2012
JH-IIRU Team Members To Hold Capacity Development Workshop in Cambodia
As part of the Road Safety in 10 Countries project (RS-10), the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) has been tasked with training and capacity development of local personnel in each of the ten countries. To that end, members of the JH-IIRU team, including associate directors Abdulgafoor M. Bachani, PhD, MHS and Aruna Chandran, MD, MPH, will host the “National Workshop on Evaluation Methods for Road Safety” in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This workshop, held from March 21-23, 2012, will provide an overview of monitoring and evaluation for national road safety programs, including evaluation designs for road safety and data collection options. The workshop will be attended by Drs. Pham V Cuong and La Ngoc Quang, faculty from the Hanoi School of Public Health and Dr. Ricardo Pérez Núñez from the National Institute of Public Health, Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública). Additionally, representatives from the National and Provincial Road Safety Committees in Cambodia, local NGOs, researchers, and others will be in attendance.
These skill- and knowledge-based on-site workshops for in-country collaborators, partners and researchers are part of the three-pronged capacity development strategy, which also includes training and mentoring during the course of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) work in each of the countries (learning by doing); and development and offering of courses on public health methods for road safety.
Several targeted workshops have been conducted in each of the ten countries and have been tailored to meet local needs. In the first two years of the RS-10 project, more than 250 individuals across the 10 countries have been trained through these workshops.
For more information on the Road Safety in 10 Countries project, which is funded with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, contact us at IIRU@jhsph.edu, or visit our website: http://www.jhsph.edu/iiru/rs10.html March 6, 2012
New Publication Explores Cost Effective Strategies to Reduce Road Traffic Injuries
Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) director, Adnan Hyder, and colleagues from the World Health Organization, including health economist Dan Chisholm and coordinator of unintentional injuries, Margie Peden, recently published an article in the prestigious British Medical Journal, entitled Cost Effectiveness of Strategies to Combat Road Traffic Injuries in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia: Mathematical Modelling Study. In it, the research team set out to identify and estimate population level costs of five intervention strategies for reducing road traffic injuries.
Although there is wide variation across the globe in the way that roads are used and injuries are caused, the study attempted to understand the underlying patterns of road use and injury burden in order to estimate the potential impact of different road safety measures on the health of associated populations.
Dr. Hyder and his colleagues concluded that their findings, which maintain that a combination of strategies (e.g. the joint enforcement of speed limits, drink-driving laws and helmet use) are expected to be the most cost effective, can provide a useful analytical baseline against which more country-specific assessments can be made. This analysis can provide an important basis for decision making and resource allocation in global road safety.
Read the complete article here.
For more information on JH-IIRU's work in road safety, such as the Road Safety in 10 Countries project (RS-10), contact us, or visit http://www.jhsph.edu/iiru/rs10.html. February 28, 2012
Tenure Track Position Open
The Department of International Health and the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit have a tenure track, assistant to associate professor level position open. To read the full posting, click here February 15, 2012
Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Featured in Special Technology Issue of Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine
Drowning is a leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 4 in Bangladesh. To help address the problem,Dr. Adnan Hyder, director of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit, and his colleague, Dr. Alain Labrique, assistant professor in International Health, are pilot testing the functionality and acceptability of a personal wireless alarm device for toddlers. The latest special technology issue of Johns Hopkins Public Health highlights the work Drs. Hyder and Labrique are doing with the Safety Turtle "gadget" and how the device might be used to save thousands of lives every year. Click here to read the article. January 11, 2012
RTIRN January – March 2012 Newsletter on Capacity Development Features IIRU
The Road Traffic Injuries Research Network (RTIRN) has released its January-March 2012 newsletter with a special focus on capacity development for road traffic injury (RTI) research. The newsletter is supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies from their Bloomberg Global Road Safety Project, provided by the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (IIRU). The issue features contributions from RTIRN partners all around the globe including an introduction by Dr. Adnan Hyder, the Unit’s Director and RTIRN’s chair, and a piece on building capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by Dr. Abdul Bachani, the Unit’s Associate Director for Training and Capacity Development. Dr. Bachani’s contribution, “Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit Building Capacity for Injury Prevention in Low- and Middle-Income Countries,” expounded on IIRU’s ongoing training efforts in LMICs—an essential part of its mission. These efforts include: learning by doing, workshops, and formal coursework through the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). Indeed IIRU team members are actively involved in hands on training for local collaborators and regularly conduct workshops on a variety of injury prevention topics in addition to offering formal on campus and online courses. IIRU understands cost can be a major hindrance to the transfer of knowledge, consequently Dr. Bachani has worked to make the material covered in two courses, Confronting the Burden of Injuries and Using Summary Measures of Health to Improve Health Systems, available for free access via the Johns Hopkins Open Course Ware System (http://ocw.jhsph.edu/). To access the entire RTIRN January-March newsletter, please follow this link: http://www.rtirn.net/Newsletters/january2012.asp For more information visit the RTIRN website; or contact: secretariat@rtirn.net
RTIRN is on Facebook and Twitter: @RTIRN January 3, 2012
PAHO, WHO and IIRU co-host 2-Day Experts' Meeting on Motorcycle-Related Injuries in the Americas
The “Expert Consultation on Motorcyclist Injury Prevention in the Americas” was held at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Headquarters in Washington, D.C. on 15-16 November 2011. The meeting was co-hosted by PAHO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Johns Hopkins University International Injury Research Unit (IIRU). Dr. Abdul Bachani, the Associate Director for Training and Capacity Development, and Jeffrey Lunnen, Research Program Coordinator, attended the meeting on behalf of the unit.
Experts from nine countries in the region, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela, attended the meeting to discuss the emerging issue of motorcycle-related injuries in the Americas. Participants from organizations such as EMBARQ, the Inter-American Development Bank, Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, and the Universidade de São Paulo analyzed current interventions from several sectors designed and implemented to address this issue. A draft document to summarize the group’s main recommendations is expected to be developed by PAHO. Upon the completion of the drafting of these recommendations, a policy brief and regional strategy will be developed. For more information please contact: Jlunnen@jhsph.edu. 
Participants at the two-day experts' meeting on motorcycle-related injuries in the Americas co-hosted by PAHO, WHO and IIRU. Photo rights belong to PAHO. ______________________________________________________ January 2, 2012 UN Acknowledges The Largest Donation to Global Road Safety by Bloomberg Philanthropies to Six Institutions including IIRU
In September 2011, the Sixty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly acknowledged Bloomberg Philanthropies’ donation of US$ 125 million to improve global road safety. This contribution has supported the implementation of a five-year project in 10 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to prevent road traffic injuries, which coincides with the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. The multi-million dollar contribution is considered the largest donation to global road safety by far. The recipients of the donation represent a global consortium on road safety. Since 2009 The Johns Hopkins University International Injuries Research Unit (IIRU) has partnered with 5 other international institutions: the World Health Organization, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, the Global Road Safety Commitment, EMBARQ - the World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport, and the Association for Safe International Road Travel. To date IIRU has closely monitored road safety interventions in each RS-10 country and collected several rounds of primary data as regards targeted risk factors: motorcycle helmet use, seatbelt and child restraint use, speeding and drunk driving.
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