posts: 24862

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                                "text": "In the chart presented here we see the major causes\u00a0of\u00a0death\u00a0of\u00a0children under 5 in 2017 compared to 1990. This type of chart is called a treemap, where the area of each box represents the total number of child deaths for each specific cause. The total colored area represents the total number of child deaths in 1990: 11.8 million children died back then, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.{ref}This estimate of the number of child deaths comes from the ",
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                            {
                                "url": "http://www.healthdata.org/",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation",
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                                "text": " (IHME). The IHME is the most complete data source to evaluate how causes of mortality are changing with time. We therefore adopt the IHME figures here for comparison. Another source of data on child mortality we rely on is the ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://childmortality.org/",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation",
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                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u00a0(UN IGME), which estimates the ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/global-child-deaths-have-halved-since-1990",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "number of under-5 deaths",
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                                "text": " in 1990 to have been slightly higher, at 12.6 million. We compare the differences in child mortality estimates from the IHME and UN/WHO sources ",
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                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-ihme-vs-un-igme",
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                                        "text": "here",
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                            {
                                "text": ".{/ref}",
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                                "text": "The lighter-coloured boxes represent the number of deaths by leading causes in 2017. As the treemap shows, the 2017 boxes are almost always smaller \u2013\u00a0reflecting the fact that deaths from almost all causes have fallen significantly.{ref}At the same time the number of births ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#births-and-the-birth-rate",
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                                        "text": "has increased slightly",
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                                ],
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                            },
                            {
                                "text": "\u00a0so that the rate of child mortality has declined even faster.{/ref}",
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                                "text": "There are two major exceptions: the number of ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hiv-aids#hiv-aids-deaths-by-age-group",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "deaths from AIDS",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " and the ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-deaths-from-invasive-non-typhoidal-salmonella",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "deaths caused by invasive non-typhoidal salmonella",
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                                "text": " (iNTS) has increased. Although those numbers were higher in 2017 than 1990, the deaths from both causes have been decreasing since their peak in 2005.    ",
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                                "text": "While the total number of child deaths has more than halved from 11.8 million in 1990 to 5.4 million in 2017,\u00a0the major causes of child deaths have largely remained the same.",
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                                "text": "15% of all child deaths in 2017 \u2013 Pneumonia and other lower respiratory diseases",
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                                "text": "Almost every seventh child who died in 2017 died of a lower respiratory infection (LRI), which has remained the leading cause of mortality over the past three decades. Pneumonia is the leading LRI. It is caused primarily by bacterial infections.{ref}Troeger, Christopher, et al. \"Estimates of the global, regional, and national morbidity, mortality, and aetiologies of lower respiratory infections in 195 countries, 1990\u20132016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016.\" ",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "The Lancet Infectious Diseases",
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                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " 18.11 (2018): 1191-1210.{/ref}",
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                        "text": [
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                                "text": "12% of deaths \u2013 Preterm births and neonatal disorders",
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                                "text": "When we talk about child mortality we usually refer to mortality of children under the age of 5. But of all children who die, most do not come close to their fifth birthday: the younger a child is, the higher the risk of mortality. Three times as many children die in the first year of their lives than in the next four years. And the majority of children who die in their first year ",
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                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-deaths-by-life-stage",
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                                        "text": "die in the neonatal period",
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                            {
                                "text": ", the first 27 days after birth.",
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                                "text": "Premature birth (being born before the 37th week of gestation) is one of the major determinants of neonatal mortality and therefore complications arising from preterm birth are usually grouped with the neonatal disorders, as we did in our chart.{ref}Liu, Li, et al. \"Global, regional, and national causes of under-5 mortality in 2000\u201315: an updated systematic analysis with implications for the Sustainable Development Goals.\" ",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "The Lancet",
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                                "spanType": "span-italic"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " 388.10063 (2016): 3027-3035.{/ref}",
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                                "text": "Children born prematurely are at high risk of having birth injuries, underdeveloped organ failures, and attracting infectious diseases.{ref}Kim, Hyun Joo, et al. \"Measuring the Burden of Disease Due to Preterm Birth Complications in Korea Using Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY).\" ",
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                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "International journal of environmental research and public health",
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                            {
                                "text": " 16.3 (2019): 519.{/ref}",
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                                "text": "10% of deaths \u2013 Diarrheal diseases",
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                                "text": "Every tenth child that died in 2017 died because\u00a0of some diarrheal disease \u2013 rotavirus infection, cholera, shigellosis and other infectious diseases that result in diarrhea. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that diarrheal diseases are ",
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                            {
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "\u201cboth treatable and preventable\u201d.",
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                                "text": "{ref}See the WHO here https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diarrhoeal-disease{/ref}",
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                                "text": "Clearly, the fact that diarrheal diseases are the ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/causes-of-death-in-under-5s",
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                                        "text": "third leading cause",
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                                "spanType": "span-link"
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                            {
                                "text": " of child mortality is simply inexcusable. As we will discuss in another post in this series, an increased coverage of oral rehydration therapy \u2013 an incredibly simple treatment for diarrhea \u2013 could help to prevent many of these deaths.",
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                        "text": [
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                                "text": "9% of deaths \u2013 Congenital defects",
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                                "text": "While classed separately from neonatal disorders, congenital birth defects are significant contributors to infant mortality as well.{ref}See the WHO here https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/congenital-anomalies{/ref} Congenital defects are defined as physical or genetic abnormalities present at birth and include neural tube defects, heart defects, Down syndrome, microcephaly and others.",
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                                "text": "45% of deaths \u2013 Infectious diseases",
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                                "text": "Infectious diseases have always been one of the major causes of child deaths, but the success of vaccination campaigns and antibiotic availability ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/vaccine-preventable-diseases",
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                                        "text": "has done a great deal",
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                            {
                                "text": " to reduce mortality from infectious diseases. ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/measles-vaccine-coverage-worldwide-vs-measles-cases-worldwide",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Measles vaccination",
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                                "text": " is a perfect example: the number of measles cases has shrunk by 86% since 1990. The WHO has estimated that between 2000 and 2017 measles vaccination has prevented 21.1 million deaths across Africa.{ref}See the WHO here https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/measles{/ref}",
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                                "text": "Today we also have vaccines available for tuberculosis, meningitis, hepatitis, and whooping cough. The best way to protect children against ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://owid.cloud/malaria",
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                                        "text": "malaria",
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                            {
                                "text": " today is to ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/malaria-net-results",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": " provide insecticide treated bednets",
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                            {
                                "text": ", but a new malaria vaccine implementation program is also underway.\u00a0{ref}See the WHO here https://www.who.int/malaria/media/malaria-vaccine-overview/en/{/ref}",
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        "type": "article",
        "title": "Major causes of child mortality: overview",
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        "dateline": "September 23, 2019",
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    "createdAt": "2019-09-23T17:17:00.000Z",
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    "updatedAt": "2020-04-30T14:00:13.000Z",
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    "publishedAt": "2019-09-23T16:16:20.000Z",
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