We read the article Childhood drowning in low- and middle-income countries: urgent need for intervention trials' by Hyder et al. (2008) Vol. 44: 221-227 with great interest. The article draws attention to the public health importance of drowning as a cause of death in children in low- and middle-income countries across the globe. We wholeheartedly support the message that there is an urgent need to increase research investments in this area of injury prevention that is often ignored by policy makers. The paper clearly describes the range of risk factors for the complex problem of childhood drowning and presents a useful systematic review of published studies.We, however, wish to point out that the paper makes some important omissions in its description of the case study of Bangladesh. In 2005, Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey - a national survey with a representative sample of 171 000 households - showed that drowning was the leading cause of child mortality after infancy through age 17 years.
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