Some facts to mull over
Over 8 million children under the age of 5 die from malnutrition and mostly preventable diseases, each year
In the developing world, the proportion of the population less than 15 is very high, e.g., Mali has about 50% of its population under age fifteen compared to about 15% in the industrialized countries. This suggests that the emphasis in the developing world should be on preventing infection in the young. In the developing countries the top four causes of mortality in children less than five years old are pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles (Myron Levine, MD, Director Center for Vaccine Development, University of Maryland Medical School).
Why children die of measles
Measles is a leading killer of children in many developing countries for several reasons. Children are already compromised with poor living conditions, they are infected at very young ages when their immune systems are not strong, malnutrition is rampant in many homes, and many families do not have access to medical care to treat measles and its complications. Measles, itself, does not kill children. Instead, complications from measles attack the child’s already weak immune system. Measles attacks the body, inside and out. It is similar to HIV in the sense that when it knocks down the immune system, the child becomes susceptible to the myriad of diseases that fester in poor living conditions.
www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/07/vaccines-developing-world.html
www/who.int
www.globalissues.org/article/218/diseases-ignored-global-killers
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