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Messages for World Health Day 2005:
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1,2,3,4,5,6
Message 1
Too many mothers and children are suffering and dying each year.
Millions of mothers and children are dying each year in pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood. Even more are suffering from ill-health and undernutrition. Newborn babies (0 to 28 days) are at the highest risk of death. Nearly all of this suffering and death occurs in low and middle income countries; and within these countries it is the poor and disadvantaged who suffer the most. Just a handful of preventable and treatable conditions are to blame.
- Every minute, a mother dies from complications in pregnancy and childbirth. That means 1 400 mothers die every day – more than half a million mothers die every year (WHO, 2004a). Many millions more suffer disabilities.
- Every minute, 20 children under the age of five years die. That means nearly 30 000 children die every day and 10.6 million children die each year (World Health Report 2005). Newborn babies less than one month old are at greatest risk. Among all child deaths each year, nearly 4 million are among newborns (Lawn et al., 2004).
- Globally, for every two people who die in traffic accidents, one mother and 20 children die from preventable and treatable causes (WHO, 2004b).
- About 99% of maternal deaths and under-five child deaths occur in low and middle income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Within each country, mothers and children from the poorest families are the most likely to die (Victora et al., 2003; Graham et al., 2004).
Source: Wagstaff (2000)
Under-five mortality rates for the richest and poorest socioeconomic segments of the population, Brazil (1996-97) and South Africa (1993)
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Source: Graham et al. (2004)
Percentage of all maternal deaths that occur in the richest and poorest socioeconomic segments of the population, Indonesia (1997)
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- 70% of all maternal deaths are caused by just five factors: haemorrhage (24%), infection (15%), unsafe abortion (13%), high blood pressure (12%), and obstructed labour (8%). Nevertheless, poverty, social exclusion, low levels of education, and violence against women are powerful underlying causes of maternal death and disability. Women who become pregnant very young, who give birth many times, who suffer from infectious diseases such as malaria, TB and increasingly HIV/AIDS, and who are malnourished or anaemic are more likely to die.
Source: "Maternal health around the world" poster. World Health Organization and World Bank, 1997.
Causes of maternal death worldwide
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- HIV/AIDS presents an ever increasing threat to both mothers and their children. Women currently account for nearly half of all adults living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 2004). This not only compromises the health of women, but it also increases the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
- A handful of preventable and treatable conditions are responsible for more than 70% of all child deaths. They are pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, measles, HIV/AIDS, and conditions arising during the perinatal period. Although it is rarely listed as a direct cause, malnutrition contributes to more than half of all childhood deaths by increasing a child’s risk of dying. Lack of access to food is not the only cause of malnutrition; poor feeding practices and infection, or a combination of the two, are both major factors.
- The greatest threats to the survival of newborns (0-28 days) are a combination of perinatal conditions (e.g. low birth weight, birth trauma, and birth asphyxia) and severe infection (e.g. neonatal sepsis, pneumonia, meningitis, and tetanus).
*Other direct causes include: ectopic pregnancy, embolism, anaesthesia-related causes.
** Indirect causes include: anaemia, malaria, heart disease
Messages for World Health Day 2005:
1,2,3,4,5,6
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