The number of children worldwide who died before reaching the age of five hit a record low in 2022, according to a report published by the United Nations on Tuesday. For the first time, the number fell below five million, reaching an estimated 4.9 million deaths. This marks a significant 51 percent decrease since 2000 and a remarkable 62 percent drop since 1990. However, despite this progress, the report warns that such achievements are precarious and unevenly distributed.<\/p>\n
Helga Fogstad, director of health at UNICEF, hailed the milestone but cautioned that the progress remains fragile. She emphasized, “There is a lot of good news, and the major one is that we have come to a historic level of under-five mortality.” Fogstad underscored the need for continued efforts to sustain and expand upon these gains.<\/p>\n
Prepared jointly by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank, the report highlights substantial progress in developing countries like Malawi, Rwanda, and Mongolia, where early childhood mortality has plummeted by over 75 percent since 2000. Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, credited the success to the dedication of healthcare workers and initiatives such as safe childbirth practices and vaccination campaigns.<\/p>\n
However, the report sounds a note of caution, warning that progress may stagnate or reverse without concerted action. Despite global reductions, under-five deaths are slowing, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Complications during birth remain a significant contributor to early childhood mortality, with 72 million deaths occurring within the first month of life since 2000.<\/p>\n
Respiratory infections, malaria, and diarrhea emerge as primary causes of death between one month and five years of age, all of which are preventable. To achieve the UN’s target of reducing under-five deaths to 25 per 1,000 births by 2030, urgent investment in children’s health is required in 59 countries. Without adequate funding, 64 countries risk missing the goal of limiting first-month deaths to 12 per 1,000 births.<\/p>\n
The report emphasizes that these statistics represent real lives lost prematurely and underscores the urgent need to address disparities. Sub-Saharan Africa remains disproportionately affected, accounting for half of all under-five deaths in 2022. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed the injustice inherent in such disparities, asserting, “Where a child is born should not dictate whether they live or die.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of children worldwide who died before reaching the age of five hit a record low in 2022, according to a report published by the United Nations on Tuesday. For the first time, the number fell below five million, reaching an estimated 4.9 million deaths. This marks a significant 51 percent decrease since 2000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":23074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23073"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23079,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23073\/revisions\/23079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}