New Delhi, Apr 7 (IANS): The medical community Saturday advocated prevention of injuries to avoid exorbitant health bills and loss of productive lives.

As part of a special drive by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to make people aware of the need to prevent injuries, doctors came out and asked people to follow careful driving standards.

"Every person in society is responsible. It is a gigantic problem. Injury prevention is a social responsibility," M.C. Mishra, chief of AIIMS trauma centre said at a function here.

He quoted figures to say that 88 percent of injuries took place in the developing world.

The trauma centre got 56,000 injury patients in 2012, out of which 10 percent were women.

According to Nobojit Roy, professor of public health at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, by the year 2031, 25 percent of the total work force in the world will be from India amounting to 653 million.

"Youth will have to be healthy to be productive, and the biggest problem facing Indian youth are road accidents and not any other health issues," he said.

Participants in the initiative included officials of the transport departments of Delhi and Mumbai.