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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | UNICEF report says diarrhoea and pneumonia are top killers of children by Bindu Shajan Perappadan

UNICEF report says diarrhoea and pneumonia are top killers of children by Bindu Shajan Perappadan

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published Published on Jun 10, 2012   modified Modified on Jun 10, 2012

India is listed among the top five countries across the world which lose a majority of the two million children worldwide who die each year to easily preventable diseases -- pneumonia and diarrhoea – states the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report released on Friday. The report adds that nearly 90 per cent of all these deaths are due to unsafe water and poor hygiene.

“Pneumonia and diarrhoea are among the top causes of childhood deaths around the world and together they kill more than two million children each year and accounts for more than one-fourth of all deaths of children under the age of five,” notes the report.

About half of childhood deaths in the world due to diarrhoea or pneumonia take place in five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Ethiopia, said the report.

Poverty is a major factor in the spread of both diseases, with Pakistan, India, and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa making up the worst-hit nations. “Simple steps like washing hands with soap and water can dramatically reduce the incidence of both pneumonia and diarrhoea in children,” noted UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake in a release.

The report urges the 75 countries with the highest mortality rates to aim to treat poor children with diarrhoea and pneumonia the same way they do those from the top 20 per cent of households, a so-called ‘equity approach.'

Key interventions to preventing the deaths, according to the report, include vaccinating against the major causes of pneumonia and diarrhoea, encouraging infant breastfeeding, improving access to clean water and sanitation, offering antibiotics for pneumonia and rehydration solutions for diarrhoea.

Pneumonia is responsible for 18 per cent of childhood deaths worldwide each year and diarrhoea is linked to 11 per cent. In contrast, AIDS is responsible for two per cent of global childhood deaths annually and malaria for seven per cent, according to the report.

The Hindu, 9 June, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3507260.ece


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