Premature birth, pneumonia and malaria among leading causes of death in under-fives worldwide, as UN experts warn aid cuts are slowing progress on survival rates

Most of the 4.9 million children who died in 2024 could have been saved, according to a new UN report that warns aid cuts could thwart the global goal of ending preventable child deaths.

Progress towards ending the preventable deaths of children under five by 2030 has slowed 60% since 2015, the report found, leading to UN experts to call for sustained investment in health systems to reach the target.

“No child should die from diseases that we know how to prevent. But we see worrying signs that progress in child survival is slowing – and at a time where we’re seeing further global budget cuts,” said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have persistently had the worst rates of child death, in large part due to deaths of newborns, who made up almost half of the total number of children who died under five.

  • 001Guy001@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    We need to move away from a system that requires “funding” to operate. If we have all of the needed knowledge, resources, technology, human power, etc. - we should just do what needs to be done.

    “Pfizer and its shareholders make more money from drugs that treat baldness and impotence than they would from drugs to treat diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis, that are leading causes of death in the developing world. Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies likely have the know-how and the physical capacity to place more emphasis on developing and making drugs to fight these killer diseases. Though such drugs would do immense good for the world and could save millions of lives every year, the costs to any company that developed them would almost certainly outweigh the benefits.” (from the book “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit Of Profit And Power” by Joel Bakan")