Strategies for Improving Global Child Survival

With millions of preventable deaths of children under 5 years of age each year, the challenges are rooted in economic, cultural, and geographic barriers – half of all child deaths occur in Africa and 42% in Asia. Child mortality is not only a key indicator of a nation’s health, but is also a broad reflection of a nation’s development. This fact was a driving force in the creation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which identified child mortality, and its closely related goals of maternal health and infectious diseases, as three of the eight top priorities for the world. In response to this global health burden, efforts are underway to increase access to vaccines, clean water, better nutrition, and other resources that will ultimately benefit the health of children around the globe.

This session of Public Health Grand Rounds reviewed progress in recent decades, assessed our continued challenges, and discussed new and important strategies aimed at increasing child survival throughout the world.