Citation and selected extracts below.
CITATION: Global child mortality falls to historic low
BMJ 2024; 385 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1077 (Published 17 May 2024)
Cite this as: BMJ 2024;385:q1077
Grace Irimu, Piyush Gupta, Mike English
'The 2023 report of the United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation shows a remarkable 51% fall in global mortality for children aged under 5 years between 2000 and 2022, from 76 deaths/1000 live births to 37/1000...
'Cambodia, Malawi, Mongolia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, and Uzbekistan have reduced under 5 mortality by over 75% since 2000, in the face of resource constraints and poverty. They used simple, affordable, high impact interventions at scale...
'Effective multifaceted interventions include access to skilled healthcare staff within a functional care system (encompassing antenatal, birth, and essential newborn care and immunisation), integrated management of childhood illnesses, and efficient referral systems for severe illness...
'Continuous learning networks, quality improvement programmes, and research aligned with integrated health services are critical to sustain healthcare improvements...
'Prioritising preventive healthcare is essential and cost effective. Community based approaches facilitated by community health workers with sustained context appropriate incentives such as career advancement and professional support from superiors, support delivery of preventive and curative healthcare services and bring healthcare to where people live, especially in underserved areas. Education and support to families can increase participation in, and demand for, quality healthcare...'
CHIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org