A million babies die within a day of being born
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A MILLION newborn babies a year die within the first 24 hours, charity Save the Children said in a report out yesterday, which urged governments to tackle preventable deaths.
The report by the British-based organization said 6.6 million children around the world died in 2012 before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes.
The number has almost halved from 12.6 million in 1990, but there remains a “deplorable problem of lack of attention to babies in their first days of life,” the aid group said.
In its report, entitled “Ending Newborn Deaths,” it said 1 million babies did not survive their first 24 hours of life in 2012.
It said 2 million babies could be saved each year if preventable newborn mortality was ended.
“Child mortality remains one of the great shames of our modern world. Every day, 18,000 children under five die, and most from preventable causes,” the report said.
“Unless we urgently start to tackle deaths among newborn babies, there is a real danger that progress in reducing child deaths could stall and we will fail in our ambition to be the generation that can end all preventable child deaths.”
It said the reduction since 1990 had been achieved through immunization, family planning, better nutrition and treatment of childhood illnesses, as well as improving economies.
Pakistan had the highest rate of first day deaths and stillbirths at 40.7 per 1,000 births, followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra Leone (30.8), Somalia (29.7) and Guinea-Bissau (29.4).
India had the highest number of first day deaths and stillbirths at 598,038 per year.
Save the Children, which operates in 120 countries, called on world leaders, philanthropists and the private sector to commit to ending preventable newborn deaths.
It wants by 2025 that every birth is attended by trained and equipped health staff and fees removed.
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