Preventable infections cause of 5mn child deaths in 2010
A new study conducted at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore shows that preventable infectious diseases have killed five million children worldwide in 2010.
According to Robert E. Black and colleagues, two-thirds of the 7.6 million deaths of children under five worldwide in 2010 has been due to preventable infections like pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria.
The results also showed that between 2000 and 2010, the number of children dying before their fifth birthday dropped 21 percent, from 9.6 million to 7.6 million.
“But the decrease was not as much as the figures needed to meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by 2015,” warned the report which appeared in The Lancet medical journal.
“Two in every five deaths occurred within the first 28 days of life,” the article said, adding, “Preterm birth is now the second leading cause of child death after pneumonia, and is likely to become the top cause of death by 2015 unless rapid scale-up of available interventions occurs.”
Five countries including India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, and China contributed to almost half the deaths of children younger than five.
The report added that although infectious diseases are still the leading cause of child mortality, their prevalence is decreasing more rapidly than non-communicable causes.
Experts have noted that reduction in children’s deaths caused by pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles, is the main reason behind the overall reduction in child mortality from infectious diseases.
Source: presstv.com
