Decreasing the Burden of Childhood Disease - Western Cape ...
Decreasing the Burden of Childhood Disease - Western Cape ...
Decreasing the Burden of Childhood Disease - Western Cape ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
As can be seen from <strong>the</strong> above bar chart <strong>the</strong> great majority <strong>of</strong> child<br />
deaths occur in infancy (under one year <strong>of</strong> age) and in <strong>the</strong> young child (1-<br />
4 years <strong>of</strong> age) age group. Moreover under five deaths account for a<br />
significant percentage <strong>of</strong> all deaths. They are due mainly to communicable<br />
diseases and malnutrition.<br />
HIV/AIDS, diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, under nutrition and<br />
perinatal problems (low birth weight, neonatal infections, perinatal<br />
asphyxia and birth trauma) account for more than 3 quarters <strong>of</strong> under-5<br />
deaths in South Africa, as shown in Table 1 below. In addition to deaths<br />
directly attributable to under nutrition, malnutrition plays an important<br />
synergistic role in diarrhoea and respiratory infections.<br />
Table 1: The top 20 causes <strong>of</strong> death in South African children<br />
under 5 years old in 2000 iv<br />
Rank Cause <strong>of</strong> death<br />
No. <strong>of</strong> Percentage <strong>of</strong><br />
Deaths total<br />
1 HIV/AIDS 42749 40.3<br />
2 Low birth weight 11876 11.2<br />
3 Diarrhoeal diseases 10786 10.2<br />
4<br />
Lower respiratory<br />
infections<br />
6110 5.8<br />
5<br />
Protein-energy<br />
malnutrition<br />
4564 4.3<br />
6 Neonatal infections 2920 2.8<br />
7 Birth asphyxia & trauma 2584 2.4<br />
8<br />
Congenital heart<br />
disease<br />
1238 1.2<br />
9 Road carnage 1219 1.1<br />
10 Bacterial meningitis 1141 1.1<br />
11 Fires 1102 1.0<br />
12 Neural tube defects 1019 1.0<br />
13 Septicaemia 980 0.9<br />
14 Tuberculosis 743 0.7<br />
15 Homicide violence 654 0.6<br />
16 Drowning 532 0.5<br />
17 Cot death 491 0.5<br />
18 Chromosomal disorders 445 0.4<br />
19<br />
Congenital GIT<br />
disorders<br />
379 0.4<br />
20 Congenital syphilis 257 0.2<br />
Most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se conditions are preventable or, when prevention fails,<br />
treatable. Overwhelmingly <strong>the</strong>y affect children living in conditions <strong>of</strong><br />
poverty and social and economic exclusion.<br />
6