While reading articles I thought significant enough to blog about, I was almost shocked to discover that about 9.7 million children under five die every year.
Though UNICEF has called it a milestone that the mortality rate has gone down from about 13million in 1990 to 9.7 million in 2007, I still thought it was an appalling mortality figure for chidren under five. UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman stressed that much work remains to be done and that the loss of 9.7 million young lives each year is unacceptable. She said that most of these deaths are preventable.
Much of the progress reflected in the new child mortality figures is the result of widespread adoption of basic health interventions such as early and exclusive breastfeeding, measles immunization, vitamin A supplementation to boost children’s immune systems, and the use of insecticide-treated bednets to prevent malaria.
Proper treatment of pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases and severe malnutrition, and treatment of paediatric HIV/AIDS, are also important for child survival – as are hygiene promotion and access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
From reports, the most rapid declines in mortality under five between 1990 and 2006 were found in Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and East Asia and the Pacific.
In the past, most child deaths occurred in Asia. Today, around 50 per cent of child deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. If current trends continue, in 2015 sub-Saharan Africa will account for almost 60 per cent of all under-five deaths.
Falling under-five mortality in Asia has helped to fuel the global decline. China’s under-five mortality rate has fallen from 45 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 1990 to 24 per 1,000 in 2006, a reduction of 47 per cent. India’s rate has fallen from 115 to 76 per 1,000 in the same period, a reduction of 34 per cent.
No comments:
Post a Comment