Survey on Characteristics of Lightning Injuries in Remote Area of Bangladesh and its Prevention

Lightning strikes are obvious in Bangladesh due to geographical location and it has very high potentiality to cause injuries even deaths. Lightning strike affects almost all internal body system due to the fact that huge amount of energy is passed internally though the victim body within an extremely short time. Males are subjected to receive more struck by lightning comparing with the female counterpart. Maximum lightning victims are from the age group of 18 to 50 years. The most occurrence of lightning injuries are observed in the afternoon and evening hours (46.67%) and interesting observation is found that the rate of injuries increases from morning to evening and there is a sharp decline at night. Most lightning victims are farmers as they are exposed to open areas which were 40.00%. The highest lightning injuries are identified in May in Bangladesh whose percentage is 33.33%. The highest number of victims was during the pre-monsoon season. Among the casualties, 43.33% (n=13) of the victims seek treatment from village doctor or homeopathic practitioner or traditional healers which is followed by government hospital whose percentage is 20.00%. Rest medical treatment is taken from private clinic, medicine shopkeeper and others means like health assistant, NGO service providers, etc. In the human body, the leg was marked the most common site lightning causalities in Bangladesh. In the present study cardio-respiratory failure is the prime cause of death. Illiteracy, adequate knowledge on lightning safety and awareness agricultural economy, deforestation, climate change, global warming, etc. are the main causes of lightning-related injuries in Bangladesh. Lightning injuries can be reduced to a limited scale if people are aware about lightning safety.