Understanding the magnitude of child mortality

A continuing global health issue that is having catastrophic effects all over the world is child mortality. To understand the magnitude of this health issue the United Nations Summit in 2010, identified Sub- Saharan Africa to have the highest rate of child mortality in the world, where in 2008, one in seven children died before their fifth birthday. This is 17 times higher than the average rate in developed countries such as Australia. To close the gap of this health inequity on a global scale the causes, prevalence and treatment of child mortality that have occurred in a country like Sub-Sahara Africa and compare those findings to a country like Australia where the child mortality rate is very low. Comparing the disparities among these two countries requires statistical and theoretical information to be sourced by leading world health organizations and is based on the whole population of each country including marginalized populations such as Indigenous people.

Identifying the causes of child mortality in Sub-Sahara Africa needs to be broad and take into account social, cultural, economic, political and environmental factors. The World Health Organisation (2008) report with reference to Sub-Saharan Africa, claims that childhood deaths are increasingly associated with “diseases of poverty” such as respiratory infections, malaria and diarrhea. Despite the uptake in vaccinations, preventable diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and yellow fever are still very high which is mainly due to poor levels of nutrition, immunization coverage, clean water and sanitation. This leads to a more economic and political view as to why millions of Sub-Saharan Africa people are still living in dangerous levels of poverty. The World Bank (1991) report on The African Building Initiative stated that Governments of the Sub-Saharan African countries have implemented polices that are inadequately analysed, as insufficient research is conducted by African scholars and other centers of policy research, African data sources are often inadequate and high positioned African officials are sometimes poorly trained and equipped. This could be contributed to the poor education standards endured by many Africans. Caldwell (1979) linked education with better health and nutrition, improved hygiene, higher child survival rates and lower fertility levels but unfortunately for the Africans, the education revolution in the late 1970’s, where Primary school for all Africans became compulsory, lead to overcrowded classrooms, shortage of teachers and inadequate learning institutions (Hernandez et al, 2011).

The statistical information provided by the United Nations Summit (2010) clearly outlines the prevalence of child mortality rates and the disparities between Sub-Saharan Africa and Australia. In recent years, there has been little or if any progress made in reducing child mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa due to the high fertility rates and the slow pace of reducing deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa has one fifth of the world’s children under the age of five, which has accounted for over half of their 8.8 million deaths in 2008, where many of those deaths could have been prevented. In contrast, data from The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows in 2005 vaccination coverage for Australian children at age one was 91%, the (ABS) also identifies the major causes of child mortality in Australia to be associated with external causes such as traffic accidents and drowning. The (ABS) stated that in 2010, there were 1,500 deaths of children aged 0-4 years registered in Australia. This is an extremely low amount compared to Sub-Saharan Africa and can be clearly explained. Australia does not have an alarming issue of water and air born diseases, quite the contrary, all Australians directly or indirectly have accessibility to the following: clean drinking water, sufficient housing, immunisation, adequate nutrition, education facilities, transportation, economic subsidies, health information/ resources and various social networks.

Child mortality specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa has become an epidemic and needs a global sustainable response to help treat this health issue. World Health Organisation director Dr Lee Jong-wook said “we have the treatments: the technology is known and affordable. The problem in many countries is getting the staff, medicines, vaccines and information to those who need them on time and in sufficient quantities”. In addition, Fitzgerald and Gowers (1993) identified that addressing one factor alone would not solve the child mortality issue, there research covered the early 1980’s in Gambia, (Africa) where 88% of children were fully immunised with access to clean drinking water very high in the region but despite this, Gambia still had one of the highest child mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. As education is seen to be a link to a better health outcomes, education needs to be a priority in treating child mortality for the future, for example, in 1971, under the Tanzania Prime Minister Nyerere’s Government, a plan was implemented at eradicating illiteracy with four years . This resulted in illiteracy levels dropping from 69% in the late 1960’s to 9.6% in the mid 1980’s (Hernandez et al, 2011). The World Bank (1980) report also provides evidence that educated farmers have been found to achieve higher productivity levels than farmers who have never been to school, and that educated females are less likely to engage in unsafe sex resulting in fertility, than uneducated females. When comparing to Australia, it is clear that Australia has made significant progress in addressing the education requirements for all Australians and has already solved many of the contributing factors to child mortality such as provide a clean and sustainable environment, access to clean drinking water, adequate immunisation coverage, above average sanitation levels, education and employment opportunities and a sense of belonging to Australia.

Research has identified the major causes associated with child mortality and the prevalence in today’s society but to reach the United Nation 2015 Millennium Goal of reducing child mortality by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015 for children under the age of five will require a global collaborated approach where the desired outcome is to implement long term sustainable solutions aimed at increasing: health care staff, medicines, vaccines and information to those most in need. This global approach needs to operate with more developed countries increasing funding and expertise to less developed countries with an understanding that child mortality is not just a problem is Sub-Saharan Africa but is a global problem where all countries need to be held accountable.


References
Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010, Deaths, Australia, 2010 cat. no. 3302.0, ABS, Canberra.

Caldwell, J.C. (1979) Education as a factor in mortality decline: an examination of Nigerian data, Populations Studies, 33, pp. 395-413.

Fitzgerald, S. & Gowers, P. (1989) Blueprint for success: the Gambian immunization programme, World Health Forum, 4, pp. 79-82.

Hernandez, J. Westbrook, J. Sabates, R. (2011) The health and education benefits of universal primary education for the next generation: evidence from Tanzania, United Kingdom, University of Sussex.

United Nations Summit, 20-22 September 2010, New York.

World Bank (1980) World Development Report 1980 (New York, Oxford University Press).

World Bank (1991) World Development Report 1991 (New York, Oxford University Press).