Diarrhoea is now the biggest killer of children in Africa [1]. Every day, 2,000 African children die from diarrhoea – deaths that are entirely preventable. Nine out of ten cases of diarrhoea can be prevented by safe water and sanitation – proven cost-effective interventions. Despite this, today only four in ten Africans have access to a basic toilet. This failure will undermine efforts to accelerate progress on the MDG for child mortality.
[1]. Black. R. et al., Global, regional, and national causes of child mortality in 2008: a systematic analysis, The Lancet, 5 June 2010: 375, 1969–87 (free pdf download). Here’s an excerpt from this paper:
Of the estimated 8,795 million deaths in children younger than 5 years worldwide in 2008, infectious diseases caused 68% (5,970 million), with the largest percentages due to pneumonia (18%, 1,575 million), diarrhoea (15%, 1,336 million), and malaria (8%, 0,732 million). 41% (3,575 million) of deaths occurred in neonates. … 49% (4,294 million) of child deaths occurred in five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, and China.
Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are not on-track to meet the MDG sanitation target:
Why do these governments continue to let their children die in such large numbers from preventable sanitation-related diseases like diarrhoea?
