PHA-Exchange> US$ 5.1 Billion Would Save 6 Million Children

Tue Jun 28 18:15:48 PDT 2005

hmmm.. throwinng money at the problem again will do?
Claudio

US$ 5.1 Billion Would Save 6 Million Children
---------------------------------------------
28 June 2005

Source: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Six million children could be saved if $5.1 billion in new re-
sources for preventive and therapeutic interventions were pro-
vided each year, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. Ap-
proximately 90 percent of all child deaths occur in 42 countries
around the world. In those countries, the average cost per child
saved would be $887 or $1.23 per capita. With the recent publi-
cation of the potential impact of proven interventions that are
feasible to deliver in low-income settings to children younger
than age 5 years, this is the first time the global cost of im-
plementing child survival programs could be estimated. The study
is published in the June 25, 2005, issue of The Lancet
(http://www.thelancet.com).

Achieving the Millennium Development Goal for child survival is
clearly affordable. Protecting child health should be the prior-
ity for countries with the highest rates of child death and for
international donors. The biggest challenges are increasing the
delivery of health services and the lack of readily available
funds, said Robert E. Black, MD, MPH, corresponding author of
the study and chair of the Bloomberg School of Public Health's
Department of International Health.

One of the United Nations-based Millennium Development Goals is
to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Past studies
completed by Black and his colleagues found that two-thirds of
the almost 11 million child deaths worldwide could be prevented
with existing knowledge and treatments. In order to decrease
child death rates, adequate funding must be available to provide
comprehensive child survival interventions to the areas that
need them most, according to the study authors.

The researchers compiled child survival interventions previously
shown to reduce mortality from the major causes of death in
children younger than age 5 years. They focused on preventive
interventions that could be put in place during 18 visits with a
primary care provider from one month before birth until the
child reaches age five. In their cost analysis, the researchers
also ensured that treatment for the major causes of child death
were available to all children who needed them. Universal cover-
age levels from 2000 for drugs and other materials, delivery of
treatment, program management and support were calculated to ob-
tain the average cost to save a child's life. The cost of some
of the interventions, such as vaccines to prevent infection with
Haemophilus influenzae type b, may drop substantially as more
extensive use reduces the price.

According to the study authors, full implementation of preven-
tive interventions would reduce the current annual cost of
treatment by over 60 percent, due to the projected reduction in
child illnesses. Furthermore, the delivery of integrated preven-
tive and therapeutic services would be far more efficient than
parallel delivery of each intervention separately.

The focus is on community-based resources, which decrease costs
since building hospitals and other fixed resources isn't neces-
sary. It is our hope that policymakers, donors and governments
will use our price estimates to strengthen their health systems.
If they don't, 16,000 children will continue to die each day as
a result, said Jennifer Bryce, EdD, lead author of the study.

This study follows a series of articles by Black, Bryce and
their colleagues, published by The Lancet starting in June 2003,
which examines the means to reduce global child mortality. They
found that at least 6 million child deaths worldwide could be
prevented with existing interventions to prevent and treat pneu-
monia, diarrhea,
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://
www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501638
malaria, neonatal sepsis, preterm delivery and asphyxia at
birth, disorders that annually cause almost three-quarters of
child deaths worldwide. The researchers calculate that a two-
thirds reduction in child death can be accomplished by new re-
sources that are easily within the capability of low-income
countries and their international development partners.

Can the world afford to save the lives of 6 million children
each year was co-authored by Jennifer Bryce, Robert E. Black,
Neff Walker, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Joy E. Lawn and Richard W. Ste-
ketee.

Public Affairs media contacts for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health: Kenna Lowe or Tim Parsons at +1-410-
955-6878 or mailto:paffairs at jhsph.edu.

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