Mortality from acute respiratory infections in children under 5 years of age: global estimates.

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a study to determine the global magnitude of mortality from acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in children under 5. Although reliable data on the total number of deaths in children 0-4 years of age do not exist an estimate based on available demographic information has been calculated as a basis for reference purposes to provide a global estimate of ARI-related deaths. UNICEF publications present estimates on infant mortality together with other relevant indicators. Data on ARI-related mortality in children under 5 were tabulated for 39 countries reporting causes of death. Out of nearly 15 million children under 5 dying each year 4 million die of acute respiratory infection and 2/3 of both these figures are infants. More than 90% of all these deaths occur in developing countries where children under 5 represent about 15% of the total population and contribute to over 50% of all deaths. In all these countries ARIs together with diarrheal diseases and malnutrition constitute the main cause of high childhood mortality. This presents a strong rationale for fococusing the attention of the WHO ARI program on deaths among children under 5. It was found that childhood mortality was twice as high when mothers had no education compared to mothers with elementary education and 4 times as high when compared to mothers with 2ndary education. Among the 39 countries for which data were available for computation were: Canada and the US 11 Latin American countries 8 countries/regions from Asia Australia and New Zealand and 16 European countries. The total number of reported ARI-related deaths in the 39 countries was 111834 of which 74234 (66.4%) were in infants and 37600 (33.6%) in children 1-4 years old.