According to a report by WHO and Unicef, 6.6 million children worldwide have died before their fifth birthday. India and Nigeria account for a third of the deaths.
“This is a positive trend. Millions of lives have been saved ”is the hopeful message launched on September 13 by Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on the occasion of the publication of the report of World Health Organization (WHO) on infant mortality.
In 2012, some 6.6 million children worldwide died before their fifth birthday, or 18,000 children per day. This figure is about twice the level of 1990, when more than 12 million children under the age of five died.
These good results are linked to a series of initiatives undertaken over the past decade to improve access to care for mothers and children.
Among them, un Global Plan of Action was implemented to achieve universal access to immunization by 2020. This program has been particularly effective against preventable diseases. All age groups combined, it is estimated to prevent 2 to 3 million deaths each year from diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and measles.
In 2012, it is estimated that worldwide, 83% of infants (or 111 million children) received three doses of DTP3 (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) vaccine.
In addition, since 1990, the United Nations has largely helped countries affected by infant mortality to improve access to priority drugs such as basic antibiotics and oral rehydration salts.
Finally, UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank Group have supported the efforts of the global Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement in collaboration with countries to implement large-scale programs aimed at addressing malnutrition with a focus on empowering women.
Yet despite these measures, infant mortality remains a major problem, particularly in five countries where about half of all deaths of children under five occur (China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan Democratic Republic of the Congo). India (22%) and Nigeria (13%) account for more than a third of deaths in this age group.
The main causes of death in children under five are pneumonia, prematurity, hypoxia at birth, diarrhea and malaria. Globally, around 45% of these deaths are linked to undernutrition.
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