As per the recently released mortality estimates by the UNICEF, WHO, the United Nations Population Division, and the World Bank Group, an estimated 6.3 million children under 15 years of age died in 2017, or 1 every 5 seconds. This is mostly out of preventable causes. In 2017, 2.5 million newborns died in their first month while 5.4 million deaths — occur in the first five years of life, with newborns accounting for around half of the deaths.
Most children under 5 die due to preventable or treatable causes such as complications during birth, pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis and malaria. By comparison, among children between 5 and 14 years of age, injuries become a more prominent cause of death, especially from drowning and road traffic. About 80% of newborn deaths can be prevented through proven high-impact interventions and quality care for small and sick infants around the time of birth. It is also imperative to provide timely vaccinations.
