The number of children who died before their fifth birthday has reached a historic low, dropping to 4.9 million in 2022, according to this latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).
Aiming to achieve historic success by total eradication of polio from Pakistan, the government is intensifying schedule of supplementary immunisation activities to include four rounds of National Immunisation Days (NIDs) and four sub-national activities in 2008. The next campaign will commence from March 4. This was stated by the Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI) manager, H.B. Memon, as he briefed the media persons here at an event organised by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef). The strategy works in Pakistan, still one of the four countries globally that are still polio endemic, Mr Memon said. He said: "Before initiation of the programme the number of cases of polio was estimated to be about 25,000 to 30,000 a year. Some 230,000 children were saved from paralysis after NIDs were introduced in 1994. The number of cases dropped to 1,147 in 1997, 40 cases in 2006, 32 in 2007 and only two in 2008 (Nawabshah and Hyderabad).' Informing about the upcoming sub-national campaign, a total of 16.79 million children under five years of age would be targeted in 54 districts of the country. A total of 43,033 vaccination teams, 7,922 area supervisors and 1,296 zonal supervisors would participate in the campaign. The campaign activities will also be monitored by more than 500 national monitors. Stressing on increasing geographical restriction of wild polio virus, the EPI representative said the majority of districts had been polio free for almost two years. Sixty per cent of the cases in 2006 were from six districts only. There had been no cases from the Federally Administered Northern Areas (Fana) since 1998, Azad Jammu and Kashmir since 2000 or Islamabad since 2003. The vast majority of population, in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, lived in polio free areas, as wild polio virus transmission is currently focal in two main areas
Pneumonia has been claiming the highest number of child lives in the country, despite a remarkable progress in under-five child survival for immunization and oral saline over the last three decades, pediatricians and health scientists said here yesterday. "Pneumonia is still the leading cause of childhood deaths in Bangladesh,' Steve Luby, agency head of Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US Embassy in Dhaka, told a symposium. Bangladesh Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (BSPID), a newly formed body of Paediatricians and health scientists, organised the two-day function at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, where experts from home and abroad are participating. BSPID President and former director of Dhaka Shishu Hospital Prof Manzoor Hussain chaired the inaugural function, addressed by National Prof M R Khan, noted paediatrician Prof MQK Talukder, Prof Dr Satish Deopoojari of India, BSPID Secretary General Dr Samir K Saha, and BSPID Executives Dr Reaz Mobarak and Dr Mizanur Rahman. Steve Luby, also head of the programme on infectious disease of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), said one in five children per 1,000 died within five years of their age during 1975, but this number has come down by 75 percent over the last three decades. "There is a 90 percent reduction alone in diarrhoea-specific deaths over last 30 years,' he said referring to the statistics of the latest Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS). He said Bangladesh is one of the three to four developing countries heading successfully towards achieving millennium development goals (MDGs). Steve Luby referred to the findings of a three-year community and hospital-based surveillance in urban Dhaka ended in 2007 and said meningitis, pneumonia, severe pneumonia and very severe pneumonia were common causes of child illnesses. He also said streptococcus, and influenza are important paediatric pathogens in Bangladesh. Answering to a question he said the problem of pneumonia necessitates a combined effort from paediatricians, parents and policymakers for further reduction in under-five child mortality and morbidity in the country, where prevalence of pneumonia is around 40 percent among sick children. He also expressed hope that the World Health Organization (WHO) would soon recommend alternative antibiotics of ampicillin and penicillin for such treatments at a low cost. Prof Talukder underscored the need for popularising breastfeeding further among mothers from all walks of life. The children who are not breastfed are four times susceptible to infection than the breastfed children, he pointed out and added that breastfeeding could be one of the best means to prevent child mortality. Prof Manzoor Hussain said the BSPID has been formed to work as a catalyst to groom specialised paediatricians and train general practitioners across the country to treat emerging and reemerging infections among children. The incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases among children are very high, despite successful running of the extended programme for immunization (EPI). "The emerging infection diseases such as nipah virus and HIV/AIDS need specialised persons to deal with,' he said, adding that the DSPID would work as an umbrella organisation to help the doctors who want to develop their career as 'infectious disease paediatricians.' A total of 125 doctors have already joined in BSPID for the purpose, he added. According to Unicef statistics, under-five child mortality mostly results from neonatal mortality, which makes up 55 percent of such deaths in Bangladesh. More than 120,000 neonates die within four weeks of their birth every year and most of these deaths occur at homes, where 90 percent of deliveries take place without proper safety. Malnutrition and lack of health education are seen two other factors killing children.
Laurie Hyman had a busy time at this month's New York Toy Show, the US industry's biggest annual event, with more than 1,200 exhibitors. Her start-up company, Green Toys, sells toy teacups, bowls and gardening tools that are made in California from recycled plastic milk containers, and sold in boxes made from recycled cardboard. "We're getting a lot of interest - from big retailers, from small retailers, from everyone," she says, showing off a jar holding the white shredded plastic used to make the toys.
<font class="UCASE"><b>cancer cure:</b></font> Scientists in Germany are considering developing a new drug for neuroblastoma, a tumour of the nervous system in children. They have identified a constituent in a fungus that might be useful for the drug. The substance, HC-toxin, from a maize pathogen, reprogrammes neuroblastoma cells in a way that they behave like healthy cells again. <br>
President Bush handed out hugs and bed nets in Tanzania's rural north on Monday, saying the United States is part of an international effort to provide enough netting to protect every child under five in the east African nation. ''The suffering caused by malaria is needless and every death caused by malaria is unacceptable,'' Bush said in an open air pavilion at Meru District Hospital. ''It is unacceptable to people in the United States who believe every human life has value, and that the power to save lives comes with the moral obligation to use it.'' Bush is on six-day trek through five African nations. The public mission of his travels is to improve health on an impoverished continent. The underlying one is to preserve his initiatives beyond his presidency and cement humanitarianism as a key part of his legacy. The president launched a plan in 2005 to dramatically reduce malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst affected region in the world. More than 80 percent of malaria cases happen here; the disease kills at least 1 million infants and children under five every year. Congress so far has put $425 million toward Bush's $1.2 billion, five-year program, which has helped more than 25 million people. In Tanzania alone, malaria kills roughly 100,000 people a year. Bush said the tremendous loss will not be tolerated. ''It is unacceptable to people here in Africa, who see their families devastated and their economies crippled,'' he said in the northern highlands of Arusha, an area known as a cradle of African safari adventure. Bush announced that the U.S. and Tanzania, in partnership with the World Bank and the Global Fund, plan to distribute 5.2 million free bed nets in Tanzania in six months. That's enough, he said, to provide a net for every child between ages one and five in Tanzania. Bush landed here, in sight of the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, and was greeted by Maasai women dancers who wore purple robes and white discs around their necks. The president joined their line and enjoyed himself, but held off on dancing. As Bush's motorcade made the long drive from the airport to the hospital, it passed through several villages where hundreds of locals lined the road. At one point, flowers had been strewn in the street before the car of the president, who is popular here for the help his administration is providing to battle disease. In every part of the hospital he toured, women spontaneously hugged the president. He visited with pregnant women receiving vouchers for bed nets and children waiting to be diagnosed and treated for malaria. He shook hands as mothers quieted fussy children. After his remarks, the president and his wife, first lady Laura Bush, distributed several U.S.-funded bed nets treated with insecticide to women waiting quietly on benches. While Bush was visiting the hospital, a textile factory where the bed nets are made and a girls school, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was headed north from Tanzania into Kenya to try to help push forward deadlocked peace talks. A disputed presidential election there led to a wave of violence just ahead of Bush's trip. Tanzania is one of 15 countries that benefit through the distribution of live-saving medicines, insecticide spraying and bed nets that keep mosquitoes away at night. Those bed nets, which cost about $10, have long-lasting insecticide. The Bushes are touring a plant where nets are woven, hung on hooks for inspection and bagged for shipment. The U.S. drive to spend money on the health of Africans, including a much larger effort on HIV/AIDS, is appreciated here. In a recent Pew Research Center report, African countries held more favorable views of the U.S. than any others in the world. And Bush, the face of the U.S. superpower, is showered with praise wherever he goes. It seems a world away from the sentiment at home, where his public approval is at 30 percent. ------ Associated Press Writer Ben Feller reported from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Mamata Sardar Kolkata Karina Krisch Hamburg An exhibition of photographs clicked by children in Kolkata, Freiburg and Hamburg shows how children relate to
Chinese and international media are abuzz with information on air pollution impacts on the health of athletes. Reports show that with every breath, athletes typically take in 10 to 20 times as much
In the wake of persistent severe cold weather, spread of viral diseases like chickenpox, measles, chest infection and influenza among children is on the increase. According to doctors, the extreme chilly weather has badly disturbed the immunity system of the young ones. Hence, the kids are more vulnerable to viral diseases. The doctors say that there is 20 per cent increase in viral infection among the kids this winter as compared to what was experienced in January and February last year.
Corporate social responsibility, once a do-gooding sideshow, is now seen as mainstream. But as yet too few companies are doing it well, says Daniel Franklin (interviewed here)
>> Journalists were killed in unusually high numbers in 2007, making it the deadliest year for the press in more than a decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' end-of-year
