Child mortality is a worldwide crisis. According to an estimate, about 29,000 children under the age of five die every day. Child mortality is attributed to mainly diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia and also due to preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth. The lives of children can be saved through proven, cost-effective and quality-delivered measures and treatments. Keeping this in mind, the Provincial Child Survival Group with the help of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF is planning to introduce a new project in Punjab to bring down child mortality.
Every child deserves a healthy start to his/her future. Therefore, all efforts should be made to accelerate progress on reducing child mortality by implementing the recommendations of the Integrated Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (GAPPD). It’s hoped that the government will be successful in taking measures to reduce child mortality.
SYED ALI QASIM,
Lahore, August 7.