Millennium Development Goal 4
Reduce Child Mortality Rate
Ethan Nauman, Nick Berg, Jeff Hessburg, Megan Starry
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| Figure 1. |
Goal: Reduce child mortality
Target 4.A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
4.1 Under-five mortality rate
4.2 Infant mortality rate
4.3 Proportion of 1 year-old children immunized against measles
As far as humans go, childhood is a very important and crucial step in development. This is a period in a person's life where they are potentially most vulnerable but at the same time, every experience is an opportunity and what MDG4 does is focuses on making sure the experiences children have, specifically in dealing with health are positive. Childhood is a period of time that really sets the tone for the sort of health and life that person is going to have at a general basis. In terms of vulnerability this is a time period where children are very susceptible to sickness and diseases that we may only consider common colds, but for these children if left untreated can leave to life altering disabilities or even death.
In talking about the previous MDGs we’ve primarily focused on adults and children who have reached the age 5 and higher. This goal focuses on children below that milestone and ways in ensuring they not only make it to age 5, but are healthy and have a good foundation healthwise for the rest of their life. Studies have shown that with proper nutrition and health at an early age, the more likely that person is productive and better off in the long run as they become independent and begin having families of their own later in life.
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| Figure 2. shows the key risk factors for three countries in LAC: Cuba, Bolivia, and Haiti. There is five different risk factors that this chart is looking at ranging from delivery care to breastfeeding. |
For our region there has been significant progress in terms of childhood health starting before the MDGs were even established. About 50 years ago approximately 150 out of 1000 children did not survive until they reached the age of five. Through various initiatives and focus on this horrific statistic, that number had been reduced to about 30 out of 1000 by the turn of the 21st century. During the 1990s LA&C made great progress unlike many other regions and used methods that worked in some places to enhance the entire region and spread progress.
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| Figure 3. shows different countries throughout the region and were they stood before, during, and after MGD4.
Although there has been substantial growth of child mortality within the Latin American and Caribbean region, the region still face economic and social issues that keep the improvement of child mortality at a stand-still. The first Millennium Development Goal: Reducing Poverty and Hunger plays a role into these issues as there has been unequally dispersed health benefits for impoverished children. For example, according to Marianela Jarroud, in her article ‘Inequality Blocks Further Reduction in Child Mortality in Latin America, she researched that “five premature infants from poor families died of septic shock in a public hospital in Vina del Mar… after the preterm formula they were given through feeding tubes was contaminated by wastewater that dripped from the floor above”. This shows that there remains hidden issues within national average successes, especially in “unequal regions”. (Jarroud). But, thankfully, the region has established a handful of health initiatives and interventions to steadily get back on track of reducing child mortality.
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Interventions
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| Here we find a young child getting a vaccination. www.idrc.ca) |
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| Figure 4. LAC is one of two regions that reached MGD 4 before 2015. Although they reached the goal still 196,000 children died in the region in 2013. 1 child dies every 3 minutes in the region, 60% of the children die before the age of 1 and 50% of these children die within the first 28 days. |
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, also known as PATH, is the leader in global health innovation. PATH is an international nonprofit organization. “We save lives and improve health, especially among women and children. We accelerate innovation across five platforms—vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and system and service innovations.” Each platform is designed to solve health problems, in Latin America, and throughout other parts of the world in need. Vaccines are given to children to give them a healthy start in life. They aim to help supply drugs to treat diseases at a more affordable cost. PATH invents and supports the development of “point-of-care” diagnostic tests, these tests are affordable, portable, and easy to use. They give a much more accurate diagnosis than just evaluating symptoms. The devices platform PATH focuses on development of appropriate, available, and affordable technologies for the people in need. Technologies such as “water filters and pre filled, non reusable syringes.” The final platform, system and service innovations, “ensure that all these tools reach the people who need them.” This means improving the infrastructure and supply systems so technologies can be used properly. Advocating and informing these lifesaving priorities. Also training workers to understand these technologies. All of these technologies, especially vaccines and drugs, can largely impact the health young children under the age of five and help them have a much larger chance of surviving.
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