Every 3.5 seconds a child under five dies: 24,000 deaths a day; almost nine million a year – four million of them in the Asia-Pacific region. But a new World Vision report finds that the vast majority of these deaths are preventable if governments spent more on simple health interventions, recommitted themselves to reducing child and infant mortality and targeted health care at the most vulnerable.

Launched on Monday, November 16, the Child Health Now report calls on governments to bolster family and community health interventions, some of which cost as little as USD 30 cents.

Life-saving health measures for children are as simple as:

• Providing basic vaccinations, oral rehydration sachets for children with diarrhoea, and vitamin and micronutrient supplements to boost immunity and growth
• Educating mothers to exclusively breastfeed children in the first six months and prevent childhood malnutrition by feeding infants from six months with nutritious foods from cheap locally available sources
• Improving access to basic community level maternal, neonatal and infant care services

However, World Vision’s report found that despite the solutions being well known governments in the developed and underdeveloped world were failing children, especially the poor and marginalised.

“It’s not acceptable that more than 24,000 children are dying every day, most from preventable causes such as diarrhoea, pneumonia, childbirth complications and malaria,” said Kevin Jenkins, World Vision International President. “This is more than just a problem facing the developing world. It’s a ‘silent’ emergency. And it is, I believe, the greatest child rights violation of our time.”

Dr. Sri Chander, World Vision’s health advisor for the Asia-Pacific, said: “The terrible tragedy of these under-five child deaths – and there are some four million in the Asia-Pacific region – is that they are mostly very easy to prevent but health spending is not targeted at the biggest killer diseases for children, or on things like clean water, sanitation and nutritious food. At least half of these preventable deaths have malnutrition as an underlying cause”

Of the eight Millennium Development Goals, he said Goal 4 – to cut under-five child mortality by two thirds by 2015 – was the farthest off track with only 30 percent of the progress needed having been made. Significantly high child malnutrition rates in India – contributing to two million child deaths a year – have to be addressed, as well as reducing in-country inequities in access to maternal and new-born health services in places like Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea, Laos and Cambodia.

World Vision, which works with children and communities in almost 100 countries, is recalibrating its own development work to push USD 1.5 billion into health programmes over the next five years. The agency also aims to ensure that government leaders deliver on their commitments to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015 – equal to six million children’s lives being saved a year.

The report points to the experience of several low income countries that, through a mix of high-level political commitment and focussed policies, have made substantial cuts in child deaths, demonstrating that progress can be made, even in the most resource-constrained contexts.

Contacts:

Dr. Sri Chander
Regional Health Advisor, World Vision Asia-Pacific
Office: +65 6348-3811

James East
Regional Communications Advisor, World Vision Asia-Pacific
Cell: +66 898121402