FROM the highest mortality countries, children are up to 60 times more likely to die in the first five years of life than those from the lowest mortality countries.
Based on a new mortality estimates made by the UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Division, and the World Bank Group, an estimated 6.3 million children under 15 years of age died in 2017, or 1 every 5 seconds, mostly of preventable causes.
The vast majority of these deaths – some 5.4 million – occur in the first five years of life, with the newborns accounting for around half of the deaths.
UNICEF Director of Data, Research and Policy Laurence Chandy says that without urgent action, 56 million children under five will die from now until 2030 – half of them newborns.
Globally in 2017, half of all deaths under five years of age took place in sub-Saharan Africa, and another 30 percent in Southern Asia.
Millions of babies and children should not still be dying every year from lack of access to water, sanitation, proper nutrition or basic health services.
Most children under five years old die due to preventable or treatable causes such as complications during birth, pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis, and malaria.
By comparison, among children between five and 14 years of age, injuries become a more prominent cause of death, especially from drowning and road traffic.
Within this age group, regional differences also exist, with the risk of dying for a child from sub-Saharan Africa 15 times higher than in Europe.
For children everywhere, the most risky period of life is the first month.
In 2017, 2.5 million newborns died in their first month.
A baby born in sub-Saharan Africa or in Southern Asia was nine times more likely to die in the first month than a baby born in a high-income country.
And progress towards saving newborns has been slower than for other children under five years of age since 1990.
Even within countries, disparities persist.
Under-five mortality rates among children in the rural areas are, on average, 50 percent higher than among children in urban areas.
In addition, those born to uneducated mothers are more than twice as likely to die before turning five than those born to mothers with a secondary or higher education.
Despite these challenges, fewer children are dying each year worldwide.
The number of children dying under five has fallen dramatically from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5.4 million in 2017.
The number of deaths in older children aged between 5 to 14 years dropped from 1.7 million to under a million in the same period.
Reducing inequality by assisting the most vulnerable newborns, children, and mothers is essential for achieving the target of the Sustainable Development Goals on ending preventable childhood deaths and for ensuring that no one is left behind.
Ending preventable deaths and investing in the health of young people is a basic foundation for building countries’ human capital, which will drive their future growth and prosperity. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
