Pneumonia and diarrhea kill two million children each year

More than two million children each year die around the world for two known and treatable diseases: pneumonia and diarrhea. To say it is a Unicef ​​report : the little that they can not defeat these two diseases, often "banal" to us Westerners, are concentrated (90%) in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.The figure is impressive, because it is one third of all deaths among children under five worldwide.

TOOLS - Prevention and treatment for both diseases often overlap and include increased immunization coverage, promotion of breastfeeding, hand washing with soap, expanding access to safe drinking water and sanitation, distribution of salts Oral rehydration for children with diarrhea and antibiotics for children with bacterial pneumonia. All things known, and discounted for our children: not just for children born in some developing countries, particularly the 75 states with the highest rate of mortality.

BREAST MILK - Some data in the report: appropriate care for children with symptoms of pneumonia are random, and less than one third of sick children are treated with antibiotics. The oral rehydration salts are a low-cost intervention to help children suffering from diarrhea, but are only used by one third of sick children in developing countries. One of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent the occurrence of such diseases and to safeguard the health of children is breast-feeding, and yet less than 40% of children under six months, in developing countries, receives milk exclusively from the mother. Finally, according to UNICEF, these states should be made ​​mandatory vaccinations against the main causes of pneumonia and diarrhea.