EU told 'more needs to be done' on tackling child mortality
The Red Cross is calling for the EU and aid community to tackle child mortality by adopting an integrated approach to maternal and child health.
Maternal and child mortality has declined dramatically in recent years, but not enough for the millennium development goals of reducing child mortality and improving maternal health to be achieved. Each year, it is estimated that almost seven million children under five will die, mainly because of pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria.
Poor nutrition is a principal contributing factor. More than one third of under-five deaths are attributed to under-nutrition, and of these 90 per cent occur because of chronic malnutrition. According to Unicef, there are currently an estimated 52 million children worldwide under the age of five who are acutely malnourished and 165 million children under five (26 per cent), who are chronically malnourished. If not treated within the first 1000 days (from gestational stage to two years), chronic malnutrition has severe consequences for the rest of the child's life, including a lower economic potential and perpetuation of poverty.
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