Paediatrics: Child survival: world health

Child survival: world health

Worldwide, almost 9 million children aged <5yrs still die every year. Child mortality rates vary between world regions, and these differences are large and increasing. Some examples are:

•   1990. There were 180 deaths per 1000 live births in sub-Saharan Africa, but only 9 per 1000 in industrialized countries—a 20-fold difference.

•   1990–2000. This 20-fold gap increased to almost a 30-fold difference.

United Nations response

The United Nations set several development goals in September 2000, revised in September 2010:

·  Target: reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the mortality rate of children under 5yrs.

Since 1990

·  The number of children in developing countries who died before they reached the age of 5 dropped from 100 to 72 deaths per 1000 live births between 1990 and 2008.

·  The highest rates of child mortality continue to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, where, in 2008, one in seven children died before their fifth birthday.

Of the 67 countries defined as having high child mortality rates, only 10 are currently on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals target.