Second biggest killer of under-fives being ignored

"The international health agenda is failing to save the lives of millions of children by not responding appropriately to causes of child deaths, according to a new WaterAid report released today.

Hard-hitting figures published in the report reveal that the aid system is not responding rationally to disease burden. Despite diarrhoea being the second biggest killer of children, critical interventions to prevent these deaths attract a dismal amount of international aid.

In 2004, diarrhoea killed 1.8 million children, yet between 2004-2006 only $1.5 billion was spent globally on improved sanitation – vital in the fight to protect children from diarrhoea.

In the same period, $10.8 billion was spent on interventions for HIV/AIDS (responsible for 315,000 child deaths), and $3.5 billion on those for malaria (responsible for 840,000 child deaths).



The report stresses that the aid system must continue to tackle diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS but calls for a comparable effort to address diarrhoea." (WaterAid, 12 May 2009)

For more information and to download the report see the FULL STORY on the WaterAid UK website.

waterpilgrim's comment: "Corporations do not make much money out of the installation of good sanitation. They make alot of money from the selling of pharmaceuticals for malaria and HIV/AIDS. And this is where the money is being spent? How tightly knit are those deciding where the money goes and those that benefit from the sales I wonder? Or is the gap in the financial aid because the price of tackling HIV/AIDS and malaria is that much higher than tackling diarrhoea and therefore requires greater capital? Further investigation is required but whatever the accurate reality is, there are still millions of unecessary, easily preventable, water-related, child deaths. If the world takes this seriously we can stop this."