OPINION: (Chelsea Clinton) The lurking threat to child survival
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Sometimes, when we look around, it can seem that our world is worse off than it's ever been. But despite intractable problems, there is good news: Untold millions of people are living healthier, more productive and more secure lives than ever before.
One of the most important areas where tremendous progress has been made is child survival. With vaccination and better management of pneumonia, diarrhea and measles, the global community has reduced child deaths by half in little over 10 years.
Even skeptics of international development efforts like economists Dambisa Moyo and Bill Easterly recognize these gains. But we cannot equate progress with success, particularly given how tenuous the progress is. If we look at the data, the risk of death among children under 5 is highest closest to the time of birth. This is true all over the world, not only in low-income countries. Of all the children who die before age 5, 15% die on their first day and 44% die during the first 28 days of life.
Source: CNN (link opens in a new window)
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
