COVID-19 pandemic could reverse efforts to prevent child deaths globally
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WHO, UNICEF and other international agencies are warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to unravel decades of progress toward eliminating preventable child deaths around the world.
The total number of annual deaths among children aged younger 5 years dropped to its lowest recorded point in 2019, at 5.2 million. In 1990, the total was 12.5 million.
“The global community has come too far toward eliminating preventable child deaths to allow the COVID-19 pandemic to stop us in our tracks,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore, MSc, said in a statement. “When children are denied access to health services because the system is overrun, and when women are afraid to give birth at the hospital for fear of infection, they, too, may become casualties of COVID-19. Without urgent investments to restart disrupted health systems and services, millions of children under 5, especially newborns, could die.”
A UNICEF survey of 77 countries found that 68% reported at least some disruption in health checks for children and immunization services, 63% of countries reported disruptions in antenatal checkups and 59% of countries reported disruptions in postnatal care.
In a similar survey from WHO that was conducted across 105 countries, 52% reported disruptions in health services for sick children, and more than half of countries reported disruptions in services to manage malnutrition.
Both organizations reported that health interventions in these areas are critical in stopping preventable newborn and child deaths. According to WHO, women who receive care by a professional midwife who is trained by international standards are 16% less likely to lose their baby and 24% less likely to experience a preterm birth.
“The fact that today more children live to see their first birthday than any time in history is a true mark of what can be achieved when the world puts health and well-being at the center of our response,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said in the statement. “Disruption to immunization programs from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles.”
According to survey responses, the most commonly cited reasons for health service disruptions were parents avoiding health centers for fear of infection; transport restrictions; suspension or closures of services and facilities; fewer health care workers because of diversions or fear of infection coming from a shortage of personal protective equipment; and greater financial difficulties.
In June, Tedros warned that the indirect effect the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the health of women and children may outweigh the number of deaths from the disease itself.
References:
- UNICEF. Situation tracking for COVID-19 socioeconomic impacts. https://data.unicef.org/resources/rapid-situation-tracking-covid-19-socioeconomic-impacts-data-viz/. Accessed September 10, 2020.
- WHO. Pulse survey on continuity of essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic: interim report, 27 August 2020. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-EHS_continuity-survey-2020.1. Accessed September 10, 2020.
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