Sixty percent of under-five deaths found in 10 Asian, African countries
Sixty percent of the 5.9 million children under five years old who died last year were in 10 countries in Asia and Africa, according to a recently published study, which prompted calls for action to reduce the mortality rate.
The inequality in children’s death among the 194 countries studied was highlighted in the study’s data, even though the number of under-five deaths has fallen by four million compared to 2010.
Out of the 5.9 million deaths last year, 3.6 million happened in 10 Asian and African countries – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, China, Angola, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Tanzania.
Complications due to premature birth and pneumonia were the two leading causes, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK, and World Health Organization (WHO).
Child survival has improved substantially, the researchers said, although countries failed to meet the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to cut the rate of under-five deaths by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Over this period, the rate fell only by 53%.
The slow progress to reduce newborn deaths – in the first 28 days of life – hampered the MDG target.Of the 5.9 million under-five deaths in 2015, 2.7 million were newborns.
Under the Sustainable Development Goals, which replaced the MDGs last year, all countries aim to reduce under-five mortality to no more than 25 deaths per 1,000 births by 2030.
The researchers recommended breastfeeding; vaccines for pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea; and improving water and sanitation to help with children’s survival.
Category: Features, Health alert
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