A child dies every 5 seconds, and most are preventable deaths: UN

An estimated 6.3 millionchildren died before their 15th birthdays in 2017, or one everyfive seconds, mostly due to a lack of water, sanitation,nutrition and basic health care, according to report by UnitedNations agencies on Tuesday.

The vast majority of these deaths5.4 million occur inthe first five years of life, with newborns accounting for around half of the deaths, the report said.

"With simple solutions like medicines, clean water,electricity and vaccines" this toll could be dramaticallyreduced, said Laurence Chandy, an expert with the UNchildren's fund UNICEF. But without "urgent action," 56 millionchildren under five half of them newborns will die betweennow and 2030.

1st month of life is most precarious

Globally, in 2017, half of all deaths in children under fivewere in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in 13 children died beforetheir fifth birthday. In high-income countries, that number was one in 185, according to the report co-led by UNICEF, the WorldHealth Organization and the World Bank.

It found that most children under five die due topreventable or treatable causes such as complications duringbirth, pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis and malaria. Amongolder children aged five to 14 injuries become a more prominent cause of death, especially from drowning and roadtraffic.

For children everywhere, the most precarious time is thefirst month of life. In 2017, 2.5 million newborns died in their
first month, and a baby born in sub-Saharan Africa or insouthern Asia was nine times more likely to die in the first month than one born in a high-income country.

Despite these problems, the UNreport found that fewerchildren are dying each year worldwide. The number of under-fivedeaths fell to 5.4 million in 2017 from 12.6 million in 1990,while the number of deaths in five- to 14-year-olds dropped tounder a million from 1.7 million in the same period.