USAID Child Survival Agenda Moves Forward on Two Fronts

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 02 Jun 2004 - 22:00 PDT

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Following on the heels of International Children's Day on June 1, the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Dr. E. Anne Peterson, Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, met with the Cambodian Ministry of Health for strategic talks on child survival and on methods to eliminate most preventable child deaths in Cambodia by 2015.

The discussions are a gathering of the Child Survival Partnership - representatives from USAID, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) - to address the high rates of sickness and deaths in Cambodia, and to examine community-level approaches of improving health programs, such as nutrition and breastfeeding practices, immunization and promotion of oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea.

"Nearly 11 million children die each year from easily preventable causes such as pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea and malnutrition," Dr. Peterson said. "Improving child health and child survival is a global moral imperative. USAID is actively engaged in the Child Survival Partnership and is working every day to stop the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition, and infectious diseases that threaten the chance of children growing up into healthy and productive adults."

Launched in Ethiopia in December 2003, the Child Survival Partnership was a global call to action established to spur more focused attention on the dire health needs of children in developing countries, with the goal of saving six million children each year by 2015.

The current high-level consultation in Cambodia marks the next step for the Partnership, an integral part of USAID's own child survival agenda. In Cambodia, about 63,000 children under five die of preventable causes each year. In addition, fewer than 50 percent of children complete the recommended immunization series, and one-half of children are malnourished.

In tandem with the Partnership discussions in Cambodia, representatives of USAID are joining the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India, UNICEF and WHO for the official launch of a new oral rehydration solution (ORS), a salt and sugar combination to treat diarrhea.

ORS and its use - called oral rehydration therapy (ORT) - is an approach to rehydrating children without hospitalization. Diarrheal diseases and the resulting dehydration remain among the two leading causes of deaths in children globally. Cases of diarrhea can be exacerbated by malnutrition, and lack of access to clean water, safe sanitation and health facilities.

Today, India will be the first country to adopt in its public health program a new and improved WHO/UNICEF formulation of oral rehydration solution for diarrhea. The new solution -- developed and tested with support from USAID, WHO and UNICEF -- will help reduce the more than 600,000 deaths each year due to diarrhea among Indian children.

The widespread use of oral rehydration solution and oral rehydration therapy in developing countries has contributed to the decline of diarrhea deaths, from 4.5 million in 1979 to 1.5 million in 2002.

"We must continue to rapidly implement low-cost, lifesaving treatments for children and families mired in poverty," said Dr. Peterson.

USAID's child survival agenda has been active since 1985, when Congress created the Child Survival Program. Since then, USAID has obligated more than $5 billion in support of initiatives in child survival, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. In addition, USAID has provided more than $2.5 billion in assistance to child survival programs in developing countries that support maternal and child immunization; prevention and treatment of respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, and malaria; breastfeeding; nutrition, and water and sanitation.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.

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