Coronavirus pandemic is jeopardizing decades of work to reduce preventable child deaths, new report says

But the coronavirus pandemic threatens to undermine progress in reducing deaths among children and young adolescents, putting millions of lives at risk, according to the 2019 Child Mortality Levels and Trends Report published by UNICEF, the World Health Organization. , the Population Division. of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the World Bank Group.

Recent surveys by UNICEF and WHO have found that the pandemic is disrupting maternal and child health services around the world, including prenatal and postnatal care, vaccinations and check-ups due to fewer resources and fear of contracting Covid-19 .

“When children are denied access to health services because the system is invaded, and when women are afraid to give birth in hospital for fear of infection, they too can become victims of COVID-19 “Fore said.

“Without urgent investments to restart interrupted health systems and services, millions of children under the age of five, especially newborns, could die,” he added.

Of the 77 countries surveyed by UNICEF during the summer, 68% reported interruptions in childhood checkups and vaccinations. A WHO survey of 105 countries also found that 52% reported interruptions in medical services for sick children and 51% reported interruptions in malnutrition programs.

These kinds of services are critical to preventing newborn and child deaths, the WHO said, citing a statistic that pregnant women who see midwives are 16% less likely to lose their babies and 24% less likely to lose their babies. likely to experience preterm labor.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously jeopardized years of global progress to end preventable child deaths,” Muhammad Ali Pate, the World Bank’s Global Director of Health, Nutrition and Population, said in a statement. “Protecting life-saving services, which have been key to reducing infant mortality, is critical.

Newborns had the highest risk of death, even before the coronavirus pandemic, with one baby dying every 13 seconds in 2019, according to the UNICEF mortality report. According to the WHO, they could be at a much higher risk of death from coronavirus-related disruptions to essential health services.

Johns Hopkins University, which has been tracking the pandemic since the beginning, said the models showed that interruptions in health care due to Covid-19 could cause the death of nearly 6,000 additional children each day.

Although progress is being made on child deaths, the UNICEF mortality report also predicts that if current trends continue, 10 million children ages 5 to 14 and 52 million children under 5 will still die between 2019 and 2030.

“Nearly half of these under-five deaths will be newborns, whose deaths could be prevented by providing high-quality prenatal (prenatal) care, skilled delivery care, postnatal care for mothers and their babies, and newborn care. born small and sick, “the report said.

“Reducing inequalities is critical to ending these preventable child deaths and to ensuring that no child is left behind,” the UNICEF report concluded.