Curbing Child Mortality
Child mortality occurs mainly in developing countries and affects infants under the age of five. Every year, four million of them die in the first week of life. Unfortunately, its factors are numerous and poverty is the main one. The phenomenon is common mainly in Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia.
In addition, lack of hygiene causes different diseases which increase child mortality - diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery or lack of oxygen at birth are examples. Other major factors are malnutrition, which has various causes, and lack of micronutrient supplements. Nevertheless, most factors are preventable and there are various ways to curb the phenomenon. One of them is the Measles Initiative, which has helped reduce global measles mortality by 68 percent.
The UN tries to assist populations in which child mortality rates are high. UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) provides health assistance and supplies vaccines, antibiotics and micronutrient supplements. It also tries to improve sanitation and water quality and enable access to safe-drinking water. Another goal is improving family care. It has been found that child mortality rates are higher among families who lack basic education. Therefore, families should be taught health skills like hygiene simultaneously with provision of health treatments.
UNICEF also helps children go to school, where they can find proper sanitation resources. Another form of intervention is providing together with the WHO (World Health Organization) and UNFPA (United Nations Population fund) financial and technical support to pregnant women, whose condition is important for the child's development. It has also been found that breastfeeding decreases child mortality and therefore, it is encouraged.
Nowadays, UNICEF's main goal is to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015. It seems that the phenomenon diminishes every year – in 1990 12.7 million children under the age of 5 died, in 2006 9.7 and in 2007 9.2, a diminution of almost 25%. However, 9.7 million children still die every year and there is still a long way to go.
Helpful Sites:
http://www.unicef.org/mdg/childmortality.html
http://www.childmortality.org/
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