MILLIONS OF CHILDREN CAUGHT IN POVERTY TRAP DIE NEEDLESSLY EACH YEAR
Almost 11 million children, most of them babies, die each year of
preventable causes, according to United Nations officials meeting to hammer
out a strategy to save more young lives.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund said
diarrhoea, malaria, measles, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition were main
causes of death and resulted from the impoverished living conditions of 600
million children around the world. The agencies were meeting in Stockholm to
work out ways to "reach the poorest and youngest" in advance of a United
Nations special session on children in May.
Of the preventable deaths, "eight million are babies, half of them in the
first month of life," said the director general of the World Health
Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland. "These deaths were preventable and
treatable, not inevitable."
Malnutrition causes about 60 percent of the deaths, said Carol Bellamy,
executive director of Unicef. "It's not just food, but access to water and
sanitation," she said.
Some 150 million children suffer from malnutrition. In Afghanistan,
malnutrition affects one out of two children, and half of all Afghan
children have stunted growth, said Ms. Bellamy. Burundi, Cambodia, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, India, Mali, Nepal, Niger and Yemen followed close behind in the
number of malnourished children.
At greatest risk were children under 3. Many of those who did not have
access to proper food, water and sanitation became weakened or ill, and
frequently died. Poor diet and sanitation in early childhood contributes to
vomiting and diarrhea, which weakens children and makes them more
susceptible to diseases.
Despite progress made in the 1990's - with the overall total of preventable
deaths reduced from 14 million - contributions by many rich countries for
development aid have gone down, leaving the poorest countries struggling to
meet their populations' basic needs.
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SOURCE: The New York Times, 14 March 2002
U.N. Says Millions of Children, Caught in Poverty, Die Needlessly:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/14/health/14CHIL.html