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Staggering numbers....and monumental indifference

The numbers are appalling........UNICEF in its 2008 report on Children, just released, cites a figure of 26,000 children in the world under the age of 5 dying each day - from preventable diseases. That makes for a staggering 9.7 million children.

Yes, the stats show improvement over the years, but with so much wealth in the world and excessive sums being spent on wars and arms, surely decency and humanity dictates that this scourge of innocent young lives being snuffed out be eradicated. And that doesn't take into account the trauma of mothers and fathers of the children. The indifference of the world as it averts its gaze from this blight needs to be condemned.

Reuters reports:

"Nearly 9.7 million children die each year before their fifth birthday from diseases from pneumonia to malaria, but simple affordable measures could save more lives, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

While the annual toll is below 10 million for the first time, it still means that more than 26,000 young children die each day, most from preventable causes.

UNICEF warned that despite recent advances, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East are not on track to meet a United Nations goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, to fewer than 5 million deaths per year.

"The enormity of the challenge should not be under-estimated," the agency said in its annual report, The State of the World's Children."

The solution isn't a costly one either:

"Children in the developing world frequently succumb to respiratory or diarrhoeal infections that no longer threaten lives in rich countries. Many also die from measles and other diseases that can be prevented through vaccines.

Unsafe water and poor sanitation also cause extensive disease and death, especially among malnourished children.

Yet simple, affordable measures such as breast-feeding, vaccinations and insecticide-treated bed nets can dramatically reduce child deaths, according to UNICEF."

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