3.2 The challenges of child mortality

Described image
Malaria Test Results, © Shutterstock

The challenge: accelerating child survival

The United Nations set a series of Millenium Development Goals, the fourth one (of 8) was to reduce child mortality, the target of reducing it by 2/3 of the 1990 levels by 2015. WHO figures from 2015 show 9.2 million children under-five are dying each year. While this is less than the 12 million in 1990, it is still not reaching the goals. Most of these children are dying in developing countries from diseases like , pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, preventable diseases.

Key facts: uneven and insufficient progress

  • More than one billion children are severely deprived of at least one of the essential goods and services they require to survive, grow and develop. These include nutrition, water, sanitation facilities, and access to basic health-care services, adequate shelter, education and information. As a result almost 9.2 million children under-five die every year. A further 3.3 million babies are stillborn.
  • Most of the 25,000 children under five that die each day are concentrated in the world’s poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. There, the child mortality rate is 29 times greater than in industrialised countries: 175 deaths per 1000 children compared with six per 1000 in industrialised countries.

Causes of child deaths under-five years of agemala

Six conditions account for about 70% of all child deaths: acute lower respiratory infections, mostly pneumonia (19%), diarrhoea (18%), malaria (8%), measles, (4%), HIV/AIDS (3%), and neonatal conditions, mainly pre-term birth, birth asphyxia, and infections (37%). The relative contribution of HIV/AIDS to the total mortality of children under-five, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, has also been increasing steadily. Malnutrition is a factor in more than half of the children who die after the first month of life.

Why are death tolls still high?

Poor families are often unable to obtain even the most basic health care for their children. Poor people or people not seeking care quickly enough contribute to up to 70% of all deaths of children under five years old.

  • Of the 12 countries where more than 20% of children die before their fifth birthday, nine have suffered a major armed conflict recently.
  • Countries with weak and fragile health systems (not having basic health care services) have not been able to provide effective child survival strategies that are crucial to reduce under-five child deaths, and especially neonatal deaths. Basic health services have been lacking as well as nutrition, water supplies and sanitation facilities.
  • Almost half a million deaths each year due to malaria in children under-five in sub-Saharan Africa could have been prevented with the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, shown to reduce under-five mortality rates by up to 20%

You might be interested in exploring these patterns and those that have changed over time by exploring the work of well known statistician and myth buster Hans Rosling, This TED talk from 2006 is a good place to start [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]

You can explore the data yourself here 

To see more videos and explore the data please see gapminder 

3.1 Income, poverty and death

3.3 Infant and maternal mortality