This title is completely misleading.  It is not one child in 12 that dies from a "preventable disease", but one in 12 of those children that die, die from a "preventable disease".  - SM

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May 10, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"One in 12 Children Dies Before Age Five From Preventable Disease" British Medical Journal Online (www.bmj.com) (05/04/02) Vol. 324, No. 7345, P. 1056; Fleck, Fiona

Results of a 12-year-study compiled for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children show an 11 percent decrease in child mortality in the 1990s, but preventable diseases caused the deaths of one out of every 12 children who died before reaching their fifth birthday.  The report indicates that Africa and South Asia have a high child mortality rate with malnutrition playing an important role in 50 percent of those deaths, but malnutrition has decreased by 50 percent since the start of the study.  The report criticized the commitment of governments in both developing and industrialized countries to children's health, because spending just $1 on children will provide a $7 savings in terms of health care, remedial education, unemployment, and crime. The tetanus vaccine, given to newborn infants, saved the lives of 15,000 children in 2001, and the United Nations Children's Fund is working to eliminate tetanus as a major killer of children in the next three years.  However, tetanus spores are capable of living for a long time outside the body, which makes complete elimination of the disease impossible.

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