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.
- International_relation
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The MBC is port of the United Nations Emergency Data
Collecting Network, UNIENET.
- The World Association for Emergency and Disaster Medicine
has strong links with the MBC, which is its principal thermal injury adviser
- International Civil Defence Organization. The MBC is
officially the Regional Training Centre for
- 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.
International participatio
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:
February 1992: Joint meeting with the Egyptian
Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Co i ro.
February, Moscow: Conference on Burns at the Wishnewsky
Institute of Surgery and Burns Centre.
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.
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.
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.
Pan-European Conference on Emergency Medical Systems. The
MBC was a collaborating organization in the PECEMS that was held in Budapest in August.
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.
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.
Inter-organizational links
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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