Asia-Pacific faces silent epidemic of child deaths
- From: "Chim" <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 21 Sep 2005 03:51:49 -0700
Asia-Pacific faces silent epidemic of child deaths
By Michael Perry, Reuters
NOUMEA, New Caledonia, Sept 21 (Reuters) - In a "silent epidemic" some
3,000 children under five die every day in the Asia-Pacific region from
preventable diseases, according to a report on child health released on
Wednesday.
Babies who die in the first month due to infections and birth
complications account for 40 percent of the deaths.
Child mortality in the Western Pacific, which stretches from China to
Fiji, had fallen in the 1980s but some countries like Cambodia were now
seeing it rise again, according to the World Health Organisation and
U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) report.
The Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati had shown little change
in child mortality in the past 10 years.
"Children have no voice and their needs are overshadowed by other
priorities," said the report, released at a WHO conference in Noumea,
capital of New Caledonia in the South Pacific.
"The tragedy of our times is that almost all of these childhood deaths
could be avoided with well-known, tested and cost-effective
interventions," it said.
"Children represent the region's future. Improving child health will
benefit economic and social development."
Six countries -- Cambodia, China, Laos, Papua New Guinea, the
Philippines and Vietnam -- account for more than 75 percent of the
deaths, and the report warned 800,000 children will die every year in
these countries if the health services are not improved.
Few nations in the region were on track to meet a U.N. Millennium
Development goal of a two-thirds reduction in the under-five mortality
rate between 1990 and 2015.
The report found 33 percent of child deaths resulted from neonatal
causes such as respiratory infections, birth asphyxia, premature births
and congenital anomalies, while malnutrition was an underlying cause of
about half the deaths.
The chances of a child's survival was also reduced by the high rate of
maternal deaths each year. Some 30,000 maternal deaths occur annually
in the region, with more than 40 percent in Cambodia, Laos, Papua New
Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Diarrhoea underlies about 90 percent of the child deaths as 20 percent
of the region's population lacks clean water for food preparation and 1
billion people lack proper sanitation.
CHILD SURVIVAL STRATEGY
The report said the Asia-Pacific was failing to fund child health
adequately, with an estimated $34 per person all that was needed to
supply a child with essential survival health needs.
It said a child survival health package was relatively cheap:
breastmilk to ensure good development, immunisation against childhood
diseases, antibiotics to fight pneumonia, vitamin A, bed nets to
protect against mosquitoes carrying malaria, dehydration packs for
diarrhoea and zinc.
Some of the items cost only a few cents a day.
"Most child deaths occur where basic health care is in short supply or
barriers prevent access to families seeking care," the report said.
"The majority of these child deaths could be avoided with readily
available, cost-effective interventions."
The WHO conference hopes to adopt a resolution calling on Asia-Pacific
governments to place child health on their political, economic and
health agendas.
"In many countries in the region the weak status of child survival can
be traced to insufficient funding," it said.
"Compared with high profile health problems, child health has had low
visibility and inadequate support to promote the moral and economic
imperative of investing in children as the future of the region."
09/21/05 05:20 ET
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