by Miriam G. Desacada
Palo,Leyte–Eastern Visayas had closed the holiday season (Christmas and New Year) with a total of 33 firework-related injuries (FWRI) across the region, according to the bulletin update of the Department of Health-Region 8 (DOH-8) released on 4 January 2025.
The number reflects a 14-percent increase of the 29 recorded FWRI cases over the same period last year, the DOH-8 Bulletin showed.
Most of the victims were males, aged between 5 and 10 years old. Two of them had severed finger, three got eye injuries, while 28 of them, or 86 percent, suffered minor injuries such as wounds and burns in their hands and other parts of the body.
The type of fireworks that caused the most injuries was kwitis (rocket) with 14, 5-Star with five, lantaka (canons) with four, Whistle Bomb with three, Fountain with two, and Sparklers, Pla-pla and Picolo with one each.
The DOH-8 Bulleting also showed that majority of the FWRI incidents occurred in Eastern Samar and Samar provinces, followed by Leyte, then Tacloban City, Northern Samar province, and Southern Leyte in that order.
Meanwhile, a total of 686 other types of injuries during the holidays were also recorded by the DOH-8, 496 of these were vehicular accidents, and the remaining 190 were due to other accidents, most of these happened in Leyte province.
Of these numbers, 16 were recorded deaths, 440 were hospitalized, treated immediately and discharged, while 36 were referred to higher-level hospitals, 23 refused to get admitted, and 168 remained confined to this day.
Of these numbers also, a total of 271 were cases of non-communicable diseases such as acute stroke, acute coronary syndrome and bronchial asthma.
The DOH-8 had called on the public, families and communities that, for 2025, conduct celebrations with safety as the priority, then partake healthy food preparations, while taking daily regular exercises and lifestyle discipline for a healthy and safe life for all. —Miriam G. Desacada