Children and diseases in the Third World

: Each year approximately 137 million children are born, 70 million of them in countries where the mortality rate for under-fives exceeds 100 per 1,000. In worst-off Afghanistan 300 per 1,000 children under five die. We review some of the most common causes of this catastrophy: diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and neonatal tetanus. All of the numerically significant contributors to under-five mortality are treatable and/or preventable by simple and inexpensive methods. Medical personnel from industrialized countries, and there is an increasing need for transfer of financial resources from highly developed to developing countries. The living conditions of children in the third world involve many factors that are detrimental to both physical and mental health. In order to effect a change, all countries and societies must become involved.