Updated on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 00:00 IST

New York, Dec 10: More than 2,000 children die every day due to unintentional or accidental injury and every year tens of millions more worldwide are taken to hospitals with injuries that often leave them with lifelong disabilities, a new report by the World Health Organisation and UNICEF says.

The report says that unintentional injuries are the leading cause of childhood death after the age of nine and of them, 95 percent occur in developing countries.

The World Report on Child Injury Prevention provides the first comprehensive global assessment of unintentional injuries of children and prescribes measures to prevent them.

If proven prevention measures were adopted everywhere, at least 1,000 children's lives could be saved every day, the report suggests.

"Child injuries are an important public health and development issue. In addition to the 830,000 deaths every year, millions of children suffer non-fatal injuries that often require long-term hospitalisation and rehabilitation," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

"The costs of such treatment can throw an entire family into poverty. Children in poorer families and communities are at increased risk of injury because they are less likely to benefit from prevention programmes and high quality health services," she added.

"The report is the result of a collaboration of more than 180 experts from all regions of the world," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M Veneman.

Africa has the highest rate overall for unintentional injury deaths.

Bureau Report