More than 200 million children worldwide under age five do not get basic health care, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from treatable ailments like diarrhea and pneumonia, Save the Children said yesterday.
Nearly all of the deaths occur in the developing world, with poor children facing twice the risk of dying compared to richer children, a global report by the US-based humanitarian group said.
Eight out of 10 bottom-ranked countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, where four out of five mothers are likely to lose a child in their lifetime, Save the Children said.
The bright spots among 55 developing countries are the Philippines, Peru and South Africa — all surveyed for the first time. Indonesia and Turkmenistan tied for fourth.
Laos, Yemen, Chad, Somalia and Ethiopia were found doing the worst among developing countries, the report said.
Meanwhile, the Philippines and Peru are doing the best job of vaccinating children and treating them for critical diseases compared to other developing nations, the report said.
With 84 percent of its children having these basic health needs unmet, Ethiopia placed on the bottom of the list in the report issued by the US-based group.
Save the Children also ranked 146 countries for how good they are for mothers and children. Sweden, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand and Denmark topped the list. Niger was last. The US placed 27th, one spot below last year’s ranking.
The rankings were based on data that included immunization against childhood diseases such as malaria and tetanus, access to treatment for leading childhood killers such as diarrhea and pneumonia, prenatal care and other factors.
In the Philippines, 31 percent of children under five are missing out on such basic health care, the smallest proportion of any country in the report. Peru was next at 32 percent, then South Africa (34 percent) and Indonesia (35 percent).
“The Philippines nearly cut its child death rate in half since 1990. The health ministry, through USAID [US Agency for International Development] support, launched a number of health initiatives in 1989, including a push to increase access to oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhea,” said David Oot, who heads the group’s global health programs.
But inequities were apparent, the group said.
The poorest Filipino children were 3.2 times more likely to go without basic health measures. And Peru, despite placing second on the list, had the widest gap in child death rates between the rich and poor — with the poorest children 7.4 times more likely to die than the richest.
Ethiopia was last in the rankings, followed by Somalia (82 percent), Chad (78 percent), Yemen (71 percent) and Laos (69 percent), the report said.
Some countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, were not included in the report due to insufficient data, Save the Children said.
It recommended more funding for basic health systems.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000