Children are one of the most vulnerable groups affected by poverty and infectious diseases – 1 in 3 children live in poverty, many of whom suffer from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Children, women and those living in remote areas with limited access to effective health care are most susceptible to NTDs and their consequences, such as malnutrition, anemia, serious or permanent disability (including blindness), illness, and death. Often, individuals are infected with multiple NTDs simultaneously.
Read on to learn more about the effects of poverty and poor health on children in today’s repost from Global Issues, a website documenting a wide variety of global health issues from poverty and globalization to geopolitics.
Also, impoverished children need a voice to advocate for them, and to get them access to adequate public health treatment. For more information on what you can do to combat poverty by controlling NTDs, please visit the Global Network website.
Reprinted with permission from Global Issues.
By: Anup Shah
Over 24,000 children die every day around the world.
That is equivalent to:
- 1 child dying every 3.6 seconds
- 16-17 children dying every minute
- A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring almost every 9-10 days
- A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring almost every 10 days
- An Iraq-scale death toll every 16–40 days
- Just under 9 million children dying every yea
- Some 79 million children dying between 2000 and 2007
The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. In spite of the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage. Read more…
Anup Shah manages the Global Issues website in his spare time. Based in England, Anup launched Global Issues in 1998 in an effort to raise awareness and provide links to more information for people wanting to look deeper into issues in global health.
