With thanks to Global Health News. Extract and comment below.
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The number of children worldwide who died before age 5 dropped to a record low of 4.9 million in 2022, a new UN report finds—but that still represents one death every six seconds, Reuters reports.
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Factors and causes: Deaths were largely caused by preventable or treatable causes, including preterm birth, respiratory diseases, and diarrhea.
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COMMENT (NPW): Deaths are always attrributed to medical causes. This is inadequate. We should be thinking much more in terms of healthcare causes, especially as most deaths are preventable with simple, timely interventions. It has been estimated that poor quality care (in children and adults) causes 8 million deaths per year in health facilities (Kruk et al 2018). Kruk's paper does not include the millions (?) who die in the home or community, before even reaching a health facility. A leading contributing factor in poor care, whether in the home or in a health facility (perhaps the leading factor) is the failure to access and apply reliable healthcare information.
UN Report: https://childmortality.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/UN-IGME-2023-Child...
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
