|
|
 |
|||||
 |
|
||||
|
May 2005 Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, neonatal sepsis, pre-term delivery and asphyxia at birth are the primary killers of children worldwide, causing 73% of the 10.6 million child deaths that occur each year. WHO’s Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group recently updated its estimates of the primary causes of death of children younger than age 5.
Researchers update the information by analyzing data and developing statistical models from previous publications and ongoing studies. The results were incorporated into broader WHO estimates using a standard set of procedures. Four communicable disease categories accounted for more than half (55%) of all deaths among children younger than 5. Pneumonia accounted for 19% of all child deaths, diarrhea 18%, malaria 8% and neonatal sepsis 10%. Pre-term delivery accounted for 10% of childhood deaths and asphyxia at birth caused 8% of the deaths. More than 37% of all child deaths occurred during the neonatal period. Sepsis or pneumonia in neonates and pneumonia in older children constituted 29% of all deaths. Malnutrition was listed as the underlying cause of 53% of all deaths. To determine disease prevalence in various places, the researchers focused on six WHO regions: Africa, the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Cause-of-death profiles varied across all the regions. According to the findings, 42% of child deaths younger than 5 occurred in Africa. Ninety-four percent of all childhood deaths attributed to malaria, 46% of deaths attributed to pneumonia, 40% of deaths attributed to diarrhea, and 5% attributed to measles occurred in Africa. Most of the HIV/AIDS mortality burden among children (89%) occurs in Africa as well. The Southeast Asia region accounted for 29% of global childhood deaths, according to the report. Deaths in the neonatal period represented 43% to 47% in all regions, except for Africa. Here “the proportion (26%) is depressed by high numbers of post-neonatal deaths, especially those due to malaria,” the researchers noted. “The results show, using rigorous and transparent methods, that conditions such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria remain major killers of children younger than age 5 years, and that undernutrition is a major underlying cause in these deaths,” the researchers wrote in The Lancet. “Reducing deaths during this period may confront weak health systems with new challenges,” said Robert Black, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the department of international health, Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers urged for immunization coverage rates to be sustained regardless of the proportion of deaths. Neonatal deaths in all regions should also be addressed, Black and colleagues said, because “reducing deaths during this period may confront weak health systems with new challenges.” The researchers further suggested that the causes of child deaths could be addressed through existing, available and affordable interventions. For more information: |
Researchers said that
malnutrition was an underlying cause in more than half of all the childhood
deaths.