Under 5 death rate or mortality rate is one of the strong indices used in grading a community’s health performance. The World Health Organisation, UNICEF, World Bank, and United Nations in a Joint Report announced this cheering news about the under 5 mortality rate.
Globally, under-5 death have dropped by 53 per cent, however, about 16,000 children still die every day before their fifth birthday.
50% of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria while 30% occur in Southern Asia.
Approximately 45% of deaths among the under-5s occur in the first 28 days of life; 1 million infants die on the day they are born, and nearly 2 million during the first week following birth.Leading causes of death in this group include complications during labor, premature birth, pneumonia, sepsis, diarrhoea and malaria. Most of the remaining deaths among the under-5s are tied to under nutrition”, the WHO report said.
Hopefully with the Sustainable Development Goals, coming on soon, more countries will nudge closer into attaining a zero under 5 mortality rate.
