Under 5 years old child deaths around the world = 7 million in 2011

Child deaths around the world below 7 million in 2011


The number of children under the age of five who die annually fell to less than 7 million in 2011, but around 19,000 boys and girls around the world are still dying every day from largely preventable causes, the UN said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/9540335/Child-deaths-around-the-world-below-7-million-in-2011.html   A report by the United Nations Children's Fund said that four-fifths of under-five deaths last year occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. More than half the pneumonia and diarrhoea deaths – which together account for almost 30 per cent of under-five deaths worldwide – occur in just four countries: Congo, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, it said.



"Given the prospect that these regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa, will account for the bulk of the world's births in the next years, we must give new impetus to the global momentum to reduce under-five deaths," UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in the report.



He said children from disadvantaged and marginalised families in poor and fragile nations are the most likely to die before their fifth birthday, but their lives can be saved with vaccines, adequate nutrition and basic medical and maternal care.



"The world has the technology and know-how to do so," Lake said. "The challenge is to make these available to every child."



UNICEF said the rate of decline in under-five deaths has drastically accelerated in the last decade, from 1.8 per cent per year during the 1990s to 3.2 per cent per year between 2000 and 2011