Ann. Medit. Burns Club - voL VI - n. I - March 1993

MBC NEWS

MEDITERRANEAN BURNS CLUB
6TH ANNUAL MEETING
PALERMO, SEPTEMBER 1992

PRESIDENT'S REPORT 1991-1992

It is my honour and particular pleasure to present this Annual Report in this Anniversary year. As every member knows, although this is our sixth year of activity, the Mediterranean Burns Club was in fact born ten years ago, and I feel privileged to appear before you on this special commemorative year.
In so doing I would like all members to join me in turni ng ou r memories a nd thoug hts to the one who was the spirit and the father of the MBC, our late friend and mentor, Professor Giovanni Dogo. Earlier this year we were also saddened by the death of his widow, Mrs Offavia Dogo, Honorary Member of our Club. Their inspiration will continue guiding us.
At the scientific and organizational levels this year has been a very successful one, I shall only give the highlights as I know that our dear Secretary-General will expand on the year's activities in greater detail.

  1. International_relation
    1. The MBC is now firmly anchored and is acknowledged as the premier professional association with particular expertise in conjugating the problem of burns as a clinical, surgical issue, and the problem of fires as a societal, environmental disaster management issue.
    2. United Nations: Within the UN International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDRI the MBC was identified as the major burn care and fire disaster management facility. We have established a joint IDNDR/MBC scholarship shared with the UN as our contribution to their worldwide efforts. 1 .2. Certain governmental changes in the new states of Europe bordering the Mediterranean are likely to have an effect on the membership of the Club. Without being involved in political complications we shall deal with the changes as they are presented to and discussed by us.
    3. Some of these events in world strife and politics having retarded our Fifth Annual Meeting, this Report deals mainly with the year 1992. At this point 1 should like to stress how successful and fruitful that meeting was in Athens.
    4. European Centre for Disaster Medicine. The burn courses within the annual training programme of CEMEC have been assured by MBC through our Secretary-Generol'S Centre.
    5. The MBC is port of the United Nations Emergency Data Collecting Network, UNIENET.
    6. The World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine has strong links with the MBC, which is its principal thermal injury adviser
    7. International Civil Defence Organization. The MBC is officially the Regional Training Centre for
    8. World Health Organization. World Health Day '93 is designated as Injury Prevention Day and preparations ore already afoot for that important event. The MBC will be presenting a round table and its films on fire injury prevention.
  2. International participatio
    1. The MBC has been receiving many invitations from surgical, burns care, emergency services and disaster medicine organizations to participate in their meetings. Upon invitation the MBC has been present and has contributed papers at the following conferences:
    2. February 1992: Joint meeting with the Egyptian Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Co i ro.
    3. February, Moscow: Conference on Burns at the Wishnewsky Institute of Surgery and Burns Centre.
    4. April, Saudi Arabia: In conjunction with the World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine, the MBC conducted an International Course on Burns and Fire Disasters at Tabuk.
    5. May, Rome: Your President was International Scientific Adviser to the First International Congress of Health Emergencies in Technological Disasters, and several MBC members presented papers on burns disasters.
    6. June, Jerusalem: The MBC was invited to the First Jerusalem Conference of the new Israel Burns Association, officers of which are also members of our Club.
    7. Pan-European Conference on Emergency Medical Systems. The MBC was a collaborating organization in the PECEMS that was held in Budapest in August.
    8. Second Asian Pacific Conference on Disaster Medicine, Chiba, Japan, September. Several MBC members took part in this important international conference. This Club's President was designated Chairman of the International Advisory Board.
    9. European Centre for Disaster Medicine. Sixth International Training Course, October~November, San Marino. The MBC will again take responsibility for organizing the module on fire disasters and international management.
  3. Inter-organizational links
    1. The MBC is an official Liaison Organization with the International Federation of Surgical Colleges, the major institution linking all the surgical organizations of the world.
    2. G. Whitaker Foundation. This prestigious Foundation grants the annual International Burns Prize, the scientific secretariat of which is provided by our Secretary-General. The Foundation also is celebrating its I Oth Anniversary this year and we welcome the renowned surgeons who are taking part in that and in MBC's anniversary.
    3. Second International Conftrence on Burns and Fire Disasters Following the successful launch of the idea of combining the joint problems of burns and fire disasters, in 1990, the Second International Conference will take place at the time of our Sixth Annual Meeting. The Proceedings of the initial conference should be ready shortly and will contribute significantly to the new techniques of burns and fire management
    4. Fire disasters From the preceding, and from the extension of the title of our jour , nal to "Annals of the Mediterranean Burns Club -. Incorporating Fire Disasters", it will be evident that the MBC is being increasingly involved ,and being increasingly solicited as experts in the combined approach of burns-and-fire disasters.
    5. Annals qf the MBC The MBC'S quarterly publication has appeared regularly and is now in its 6th volume. It is a good sign thot authors outside the MBC sphere are proposing to publish in our journal. Reciprocal arrangements ore mode with several publications dealing with burns, emergencies and disasters
    6. Commissions The Club's four Commisions, the one on the Promotion of Burn Care Facilities in the Mediterranean Countries, the one on Prevention, the Commission on Disasters and that on Nursing and Paramedical Professions have been active and will be reported on separately.
    7. Membership Membership from Mediterranean countries isgrowing constantly. Many individuals as well as associations from countries further ofield hove expressed strong desire in joining, and hove been accepted as Associate Members.

Several sister organizations hove bestowed Honorary Membership on some members of the Club in oppreciation of their services.
Courtesy invitations hove been sent to the directorates of organizations that have hosted the MBC at their meetings. We welcome several of their illustrious representatives as our guests at this Conference thank all the members for their support and collaboration and in particular express the Club's thonks to Professor Mosellis for his indefatigable efforts in favour of our MBC. And on behalf of all of you 1 wish the Mediterranean Burns Club a very Happy Tenth Anniversary.

William Gunn, MID, MS, FRCSC
President

6TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BURNS CLUB
SEPTEMBER 1992 - PALERMO - ITALY
SECRETARY-GENERAUS REPORT

The 1992 General Assembly is being held in Palermo on the occasion of the I Oth anniversary of the Club's constitution. The annual scientific meeting of the Club has been incorporated with the Second International Conference on Burns and Fire Disasters - Perspectives 2000. As in other years the aim of the Assembly is to examine, discuss and approve the activity thot the Club has carried out in the previous year and to analyse future pions.
The proposed order of the day of this Assembly is as follows:

1 . Approval of the Agenda
2. President's Report
3. Secretary-Genercil's Report
4. Treasurer's Report
5. Approval of 1991 Final Balance
6. Approval of 1992-3 Budget
7. MBC's future activities
8. Admission of new national representatives
9. Election of new national representatives
10.Election of MBC representatives for selection of MBC scholarships
11.Any other business

The guidelines to the 1992 activities of the Club were indicated in the programme approved by the General Assembly during the Athens meeting in November 1991. They con be summarized as follows:

A) Sector of prevention and public education BJ Sector of disasters and emergencies

B) Sector of promotion of cultural exchange between countries

C) Sector of promotion of cooperation

D) Sector of management and coordination of MBC activities

E) Sector of prevention and public education

The orientation approved by the Assembly was to increase the production of didactic/preventive material not only in the field of burns in general but also in fire disasters, also in collaboration with qualified experts (psychologists, journalists, etc.) and taking advantage of advanced technology in the field of graphic computers.
With the realization of the two videotapes "How to defend ourselves from fires" and "How to defend ourselves from flames", the Club showed its interest'in training people in the behaviour to adopt in the event of a fire disaster. In the Athens Assembly it was decided after ample discussion to continue in this direction, extending the scope of the studies and realizing a multimedia didactic programme which, benefiting from various types of information such as still photographs, films, cartoons, written texts, graphics, audio, etc., managed by a computer, constitutes a new educational instrument for use in schools, factories, etc. The long analysis of the text and its preparation has now been completed and the final product should be ready next year.
All Members ore once again invited to submit ideas, suggestions and proposals for new programmes. Every proposal will be examined and passed on for its realization to those who request to do so and ore in a position to realize it.

B) Sector of disasters and emergencies

We had hoped to be able to offer on this occasion the volume containing the works presented at the First Conference on Burns and Fire Disasters in 1990. Unfortunately, Kluwer, who have been invited to publish the volume, will not be able to complete publication before December 1992. We will send this volume to the various authors and make it available to all those requesting it, at the some time attempting to reduce costs to the minimum. As we said before, we decided to entrust this publication to a well-known company in order to guarantee its circulation on the international book market.
The activity of this sector includes the organization of the Second International Conference on Burns and Fire Disasters - Perspectives 2000, now in progress. The Conference is attended by qualified experts in the field of burns and fire disasters and the papers they present and the subsequent discussions will certainly provide new indications both for treatment of the burn illness and for the management of fire disasters, also in their social dimension.

C) Sector qfpromotion of cultural exchanges between the various countries

Scholarships were awarded in 1992 to the following:

Physicians

ISLAM DAUTI (Albania)
SHELBAYS ESSAM ELDIN (Egypt)
ARTUSI LUCIANO (Italy)
DAVOR JERGOVIC (Yugoslavia)
STAALI HADJ LAKHDAR (Algeria)
ABDUL KADER DARWISH (Syria)

Paramedical staff

LYDIA ASSAF
NEGLIA MICHELANGELO




 

Contact Us
mbcpa@medbc.com