ORIGINAL RESEARCH Camel Racing Injuries Among Children Abdulbari Bener, PhD, ITMA, MFPHM, FRSS,* Fatima H. Al-Mulla, BSc,† Suhail M. Q. Al-Humoud, BSc, MSN,‡ and Abdulaziz Azhar, MD, FRCS(A&E)‡ Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the frequency and severity of camel racing injuries among children aged 5 to 15 years during the period 1992 to 2003 in the State of Qatar. Design: Case series. Setting: The study was conducted in the Hamad General Hospital, State of Qatar, from January 1992 to December 2003. Patients and Methods: A total of 275 subjects aged 5 to 15 years with camel racing injuries who were seen at the Accident Emergency Department, Critical Care, and Physiotherapy Departments of the Hamad General Hospital were studied. The sociodemographic information and the details of the injury of the studied subjects were collected. The Abbreviated Injury Scale system was used to determine the severity of injury. Results: Overall, 275 camel racing injuries were reported among boys aged 5 to 15 years. The majority of patients were Sudanese (91.3%). The most commonly injured locations were upper limb (23.2%), lower limb (21.1%), and head (20.7%), followed by other injury locations. Seventeen patients were disabled as a result of their injury, and another 3 injuries were fatal. This study revealed that 34% of injuries were considered to be minor, 22.1% moderate, 18.1% serious, 11.6% critical, and 6.4% maximum. Conclusions: The injury severity caused by the camel racing significantly affected the length of hospital stay. At present, the government is serious about this problem, and there is a draft of proposed legislation intended to prevent the employment of children below the age of 12 as camel jockeys. Key Words: camel, race, sport, injuries, casualties, trauma, rehabilitation, prevention, children (Clin J Sport Med 2005;15:290–293) A ccidents and injuries are a large and growing health problem, although our knowledge of their epidemiology is inadequate. 1,2 Trauma is a prominent cause of death among children aged 0 to 15 years in most countries. Statistics on mortality resulting from accidents or injuries by age and sex are available for most developed and developing countries. Some of this information has been presented by the World Health Organization 2 and United Arab Emirates. 1 Data on morbidity resulting from accidents is far less satisfactory. A system for registration of accidents is unavailable in most countries, even in industrialized ones. 1 There are numerous sports and recreational and occupational activities that are related to camels. By tradition, camel racing is one of the most popular sports in Qatar. It is a tourist attraction sport. Tour companies organize the ideal outing to watch racing camels training at Al Shahaniya race track for animal lovers in Qatar. Massive sums of money are spent on the animals and races. In Qatar, camel races take place every year during January, February, and March, which is between winter and spring. Around the Middle East, child slaves are often used as camel jockeys. Before the camel races, children go without food for 1 week, not as a punishment but to keep their weight down, so the camels will run faster. Camel riding and handling is risky and very dangerous. Observation of racing events and that of patients treated indicates that they are poorly nourished and from families of poor social and financial background. Camel racing injuries are common in Arabian Gulf countries. The descriptive data on camel racing injuries provide important information on the nature and distribution of these injuries. The study findings highlight the causes of these injuries and help in bringing public and political attention to injury prevention priorities. Nearly 100,000 people in the Arabian Gulf countries ride camels. Different studies have tried to analyze the injury pattern and define factors that affect camel-related injuries 3–5 and camel race–related injuries. 6,7 Camel-related fatal accidents and injuries are causing in- creasing concern. Studies from Saudi Arabia reported that camels were more often associated with injury than other types of accidents, and an analysis of the causes showed that most were preventable. 4,5 Mortality rates have been consistently lower and falling in the United States 8 and Canada, 9 but in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, hospital admission rates due to children’s injuries are increasing. 10–13 The authors are not aware of any study that has defined the severity of camel racing injury morbidity and mortality and factors that affect them. The aim of this study is to deter- mine the frequency and severity of camel racing injuries among young camel jockeys aged 5 to 15 years in the State of Qatar. Received for publication October 2004; accepted July 2005. From the *Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, University of Qatar, Doha, Qatar; the †Department of Physiotherapy, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar; and the ‡Department of Accident and Emergency, Hamad General Hospital and Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar. Reprints: Prof. Abdulbari Bener, Advisor to WHO Consultant and Head, Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation and University of Qatar, P.O. Box 3050, Doha, State of Qatar (e-mail: abener@hmc.org.qa, abaribener@ hotmail.com). Copyright Ó 2005 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 290 Clin J Sport Med  Volume 15, Number 5, September 2005