Epidemiological characteristics of burn deaths in varanasi uttar pradesh, India

Introduction: Fire was perhaps man’s first double-edged sword, evidenced throughout history; it has served as well as destroyed mankind. Burns are one of the most devastating conditions encountered in medicine. The injury represents an assault on all aspects of the patient, from the physical to the psychological. Aim of the study: To find out how dry thermal burn affect epidemiological factors and to height problem regarding burn deaths. Material and Methods: Present study conducted at forensic medicine department, institute of medical science, Banaras Hindu University. Study data was collected and analyzed prospectively for the duration from 1st January 2013 to 30 June 2014. During this period total of 450 burn death cases were recorded out of 3149 medico-legal postmortem conducted. Observations and Result: Prevalence of fatal burn victims were 14.29%. Most of the victims of burn deaths were recorded at 21-40 year with peak incidence at 21-30 year 44.89%.The male-to-female ratio were 1:4.6 i.e. male 81(18%) and female 369 (82%). Showing married females (84.01%) outnumbered the unmarried female (15.99%), in male, married (80.22%) outnumber the 19.33 % unmarried male. Majority of studied burn victims like 90.67% were from rural area and 9.11% are from urban area. Studied cases like 91.11% were Hindu and 8.22% are Muslims. Majority of the burn victims (30%) were uneducated i.e. illiterate, followed by education obtained up to junior high school level cases were 93 in No. i.e. 20.67% and primary school level include 13.33%. Maximum number of cases in summer season 53.33%. Most of the victims were housewives 67.11% followed by students 11.33%. Most of the burn victims were from upper lower SESS 245 cases (54.44%). Conclusion: Educating the people about safety measures. For cooking food using domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and solar cooker and need to discourage the use of kerosene burner. Encouraging anti-dowry campaigns by registration of burn cases and maintaining legal procedures.