BACKGROUND FOR JOURNALISTS

 

Six hundred million children live on less than US$1 a day.

Each year, eight million infants die within the first 28 days of life. In some countries, more than one in five children die before they reach their fifth birthday.

In 2000, 1.3 million children in developing countries died from diarrhoea. Correct management of diarrhoea could save up to 90% of those lives.

Infectious diseases account for 60% of deaths among children aged 0-4. One in five children is not immunized by his or her first birthday-

A child in a developing country is ten times more likely to die of a vaccine- preventable disease than a child in a developed country .

Malnutrition contributes to 60% of all deaths in childhood. Thirty per cent of children under the age of five -or 161 million -suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Vitamin A deficiency, which increases the risk of severe infections and blindness, affects more than 250 million pre-school children.

Nearly one in five of the world's population is an adolescent between the ages of 10 and 19.

Road traffic accidents are the single greatest cause of injury and death among young men between the ages of 15-19.

Of an estimated 340 million new cases of sexually transmitted infection, at least one third occur in young people under the age of 25.

Between two and four million girls are estimated to have an abortion each year. Most of these abortions are unsafe because they are performed illegally and under hazardous circumstances by unskilled practitioners.

Almost 100,000 adolescents commit suicide every year.

WHO estimates that 70% of the premature deaths among adults are due to behaviours initiated during adolescence. For example, most smokers begin the habit before the age of 18. World-wide, of the estimated 150 million young people who are smokers, 75 million will die of smoking- related causes.