SPA Meeting Reviews
Saturday Session IV: AAP Ask the Experts Panel - Emerging Threats to Pediatric Healthcare
Reviewed by Sean Flack, MBChB, FCA
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Once again, the Section on Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine for the American Academy of Pediatrics organized an outstanding session with two fantastic speakers from Houston. The US gun homicide rate is 25 times that of other high-income countries (despite similar rates of mental illness). Mary Brandt, MD (Texas Children’s Hospital) and Bindi Naik-Mathuria, MD, MPH (Texas Children’s Hospital) spoke powerfully on the topic “Pediatric Victims of Violence: Health Effects, Injury Prevention and Advocacy Efforts”. Gun deaths in the US continued to climb in 2017 with nearly 40,000 firearm fatalities; an uptick driven largely by an increase in suicides. 47 children and teens are shot every day and seven will die.
Gun violence in the US is a contagious health epidemic1 with firearms constituting the leading cause of death for black children and teens. For all children in the US, it is the second highest cause of death and likely to surpass car accidents as the highest cause next year.
Although contentious, there is data supporting the assertion that states with stricter gun laws tend to have lower rates of injury. When enacted, these laws make a difference. As pediaitric providers, we need to talk about safe storage. Surveys show that 68% of parents would accept physician guidance in this regard. However, most pediatricians, while interested in offering counseling, are not sure how to do it. The AAP has resources to help.
There is a lot of shouting on this topic. Per Dr Brandt, this shouldn’t be a second amendment argument; it should be an argument about not having kids die! We need to use our professional platform, address microaggressions and speak to our families.
If you have a twitter account, I encourage you to follow Dr. Brandt @drmlb
References
- Cunningham et al. NEJM 2018
