HEALTH: South Joins Hands to Reach Child MDGs

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 10 (IPS)- By Philip Rouwenhorst - The U.N. children's agency UNICEF says that increased cooperation among developing countries is benefiting the lives of poor children around the world, particularly in the critical first months of life.

"What we have seen is a very exciting new South-South collaboration in some of the areas of child health, specifically in the last few years," Peter Salama, UNICEF chief of health, told IPS. "One of the most exciting is actually around neonatal help."

"There've been [community-based] models that have been developed in India, for example," he said. "Over the last couple of years, we've seen that a team from India is actually traveling, particularly in East and Southern Africa, to do capacity-building and training in similar community-based models to reduce mortality in the first months of life."

In its "Progress for Children" report launched Monday, UNICEF highlighted several areas in which progress is being made, but also stressed the importance of more urgent action.

"This [report] is new in terms of the large number of countries that this is applicable for. It's relevant because it is data that has been taken mainly in 2006, which is roughly halfway through the period of the Millennium Development Goals from 2000 to 2015," said Alan Court, UNICEF chief of programmes.

"It gives a very good indication of how the world is doing and how different countries are doing in relation to those goals," he said.

In 2000, the world's countries and major development institutions agreed on eight goals, known as the MDGs, to ease severe poverty and promote environmental conservation by a deadline of 2015.

The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development.

To achieve the MDGs in the next eight years, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the growing importance of South-South cooperation.

In his latest report on this trend, Ban noted that, "Recent years have witnessed impressive increases in South-South development assistance... The stage is set for the ushering in of a new and more participatory form of international cooperation for development."

Reducing child mortality in the first five years of life is one of the major improvements highlighted in the UNICEF report. For the first time in modern history, the annual number of children younger than five who died worldwide fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million -- a reduction of 60 percent since 1960.

The report shows a significant increase in key survival interventions. For example, children receiving doses of vitamin A, which promotes healthy bone growth and prevents many diseases, increased more than four-fold since 1999.

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are expanding the use of insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria infections, with 16 of 20 surveyed at least tripling coverage since 2000. In the 47 countries where 95 percent of measles deaths occur, measles immunisation coverage increased from 57 percent in 1990 to 68 percent in 2006.

There was also a modest reduction in the number of primary-school-age children without access to education. In 2005-2006, 91 million children were out of school, down from 115 million in 2002.

UNICEF also found evidence suggesting a decline of HIV prevalence in some sub-Saharan African countries. Court told IPS that international networking among experts and policymakers was one likely factor.

"For instance, there was a forum a week ago in South-Africa looking specifically at mother-to-child transmission, in which there were delegates from many, many countries who shared information on what works and what doesn't work. There are mechanisms for that sharing of information and for developing countries to learn from each other rather than necessarily programme jointly," he said.

Almost two-thirds of all people with HIV/AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa. The report notes that only 11 percent of more than two million pregnant women living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries in 2005 received antiretroviral drugs to prevent them from infecting their babies. Botswana, Brazil and Thailand are among seven countries that gave such drugs to more than 40 percent of pregnant women with HIV.

In low- and middle-income countries, only 15 percent of children under age 15 in need of antiretroviral treatment in 2006 actually received it.

However, Salama told IPS that the news is not all bad. "There are many other examples where African countries themselves are really showing strong progress. One of them is Ethiopia, where in the last few years the government has made a very ambitious plan to train 30,000 community health workers."

"This model is attracting a lot of interest in southern Africa from surrounding governments because they see this as a potential way to really get around one of our major constraints in progress on the health-related Millennium Development Goals," i.e., cash-strapped public health systems and persistent misconceptions about how to prevent HIV/AIDS.

While Court also pointed to higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding, particularly in West Africa, as helping to lower child death rates, the UNICEF report found little progress in the area of maternal deaths, which total five million women each year.

According to Court, "This has been something that's been very difficult to move for sometime. This is particularly difficult because the numbers in a sense are not so alarming enough in any one culture to create the kind of crisis approach to dealing with the problem."

Early next year, UNICEF will release its annual "State of the World's Children Report". Court said "it will be looking at community-based approaches to care regarding health-related issues."

"This is going to be a major shift and one based on the lessons that we've learned coming from this database. This circulates through in terms of how we work in the United Nations country teams and countries and how we interact with governments."

Root Causes of Diseases: Perspective from a Professional

HIV/AIDS statistics for Ethiopia

Country rank of HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa (2005): 5th
Source: World Bank

Percentage of HIV/AIDS cases in the world (2005): 7%
Source: World Bank

Overall HIV prevalence, adults 15-49, in 2003 (2006): 4.4% of population, or 3 million people
Source: World Health Organization

Adults infected weekly (2006): 5,000
Source: World Health Organization

Age group with highest rate of infection: 15-24 years; female prevalence 3 times greater than among males
Source: USAID in PPGG Fact Sheet

Women living with HIV, 15-49, in 2003 (2006): 770,000
Source: UNICEF

Mother-to-child HIV transmission: 2nd highest number of new infections per year
Source: USAID in PPGG Fact Sheet

Children dying from AIDS (2005): 1 in 16
Source: World Health Organization

Children orphaned by AIDS, aged 0-17, 2003 estimate (2006): 720,000
Source: UNICEF

THE AGE OF AIDS

Watch the whole show from Frontline (click here)

AIDS Perspectives 2007

Big drop in measles deaths in Africa: WHO

GENEVA (AFP) — Deaths from measles fell by 91 percent in Africa over the past six years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Thursday.

But the WHO warned that figures were still far too high in South Asia, singling out India and Pakistan for criticism.

Measles deaths between 2000 and 2006 in Africa dropped from 396,000 to just 36,000, contributing to a worldwide decline in measles deaths of 68 percent, according to the Geneva-based health organisation.

"This is a major victory, but our job is by no means done," Peter Strebel, measles officer for the WHO said.

"We need to expand the successful vaccination strategy used primarily in Africa to South Asia," he added.

"Large countries with high numbers of measles deaths, such as India and Pakistan, need to fully implement the proven control strategy," the WHO warned in a statement accompanying the report.

The WHO-led vaccination campaign is thought to have saved around 7.5 million lives. However, measles still kills nearly 600 children under five every day around the world.

Since 2000 nearly half a million children have been vaccinated in the 46 countries the most affected by measles, with "major gains" seen in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Ethiopia, Strebel said.

But the vaccination campaign has been less well-applied in South Asia, where more than half of new-born babies are never vaccinated.

South Asian measles deaths last year stood at 178,000 -- more than five times the African figure.

The WHO's objective is to reduce measles' deaths by 2010 by 90 percent from the year 2000. Doing that will require an additional 200 million dollars (135 million euros), the WHO reckons.

Last year 80 percent of the world's infants had been vaccinated, compared with 72 percent in 2000.

To see the highly contagious virus eradicated, at least 93-95 percent of the population must be vaccinated -- which will require greater assistance from some countries' health services, emphasised Strebel.

"We know that the virus could be eradicated. It is biologically possible," he added, pointing out that measles transmission had completely disappeared on the American continent since 2002.

But one of the problems in entirely eradicating the virus, Strebel added, was that the major Western countries no longer considered it a "major threat" in terms of public health. Measles is more often fatal in poor countries because it attacks malnourished children.

"The commitment is not really there," he said.

A Dose Of God May Help Medicine

ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2007) — For some families, the cancer diagnosis of a child strengthens existing religious ties or prompts new ones. Now, a new study by researchers at Brandeis University and the University at Buffalo - SUNY in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology reports that while most pediatric oncologists say they are spiritual, and many are open to connecting with the families of very sick children through religion or spirituality, they typically lack the formal healthcare training that could help them build such bridges.

"Increasingly, religion and spirituality are being recognized as important in the care of critically ill patients and we know that many parents draw on such resources to cope with their child's illness," said coauthor Wendy Cadge, a Brandeis sociologist. "This study suggests that we should consider training to help physicians relate spiritually to families confronting life-threatening illness such as cancer."

"Research shows that many patients do not feel the medical system adequately meets their spiritual needs," said Cadge. "By shedding light on how religion and spirituality connect to the practice of medicine, this study is a first step toward addressing such needs of patients and their families during a profoundly threatening chapter of life."

Source: Brandeis University (2007, November 15). A Dose Of God May Help Medicine. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/11/071114111135.htm

Child mortality declining in Ethiopia but more progress needed – UNICEF chief

Source: UN News Centre

Child mortality in impoverished Ethiopia has fallen over the past 15 years and steady development progress is being made in other areas as well, the visiting head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said, while stressing that more work is needed to build on these successes.

Under-five mortality rates have steadily declined to 123 out of every 1,000 live births, down from peak levels in 1990 when 204 out of every 1,000 children died before the age of five. However with close to 400,000 children under five still dying from preventable causes each year, Ethiopia continues to have one of the highest child mortality rates in the world.
“Child mortality in Ethiopia has declined by 40 per cent in the last 15 years. We must build upon these gains to further improve the lives of children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman, while highlighting the importance of the Government, affected communities, donors and UN agencies working closely together for development.

“Partnerships are essential for Ethiopia’s success against the challenges of poverty, disease, nutrition, protection and education. We must act with urgency and build on our achievements so that Ethiopia’s children not only survive, but thrive.”
The Enhanced Outreach Strategy for child survival – the largest ever collaboration between the UN and the Government of Ethiopia – and the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) campaign, are two examples of these partnerships.

Ms. Veneman’s trip to Ethiopia, which included visits to a commercial flower farm and a coffee cooperative, also saw her participate in the opening of the Plumpy’Nut factory in Addis Ababa, which is producing a ready-to-use-therapeutic food.

“Therapeutic foods such as Plumpy’Nut will help save the lives of severely malnourished children and help fight malnutrition across the country,” she said.