As per new mortality estimates released by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Division and the World Bank Group, a child under 15 years of age dies every five seconds around the world. Alone in 2017, an estimated 6.3 million children under 15 years of age died mostly of preventable causes.
The vast majority of these deaths – 5.4 million – occur in the first five years of life, with newborns accounting for around half of the deaths.
The death of Children mostly occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. In 2107, half of all the deaths under five years of age took place in sub-Saharan Africa, and another 30 per cent in Southern Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 13 children died before their fifth birthday. In high-income countries, that number was 1 in 185.
“Most children under 5 die due to preventable or treatable causes such as complications during birth, pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis and malaria,” the report says.
