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[24 January 2008] - Hundreds of children aged under five die from preventable diseases each day in military-ruled Burma, UN officials said.
The figures are the second-worst mortality rate for children in Asia except for Afghanistan. Dr Osamu Kunii, a nutrition expert in Burma for the UN, said there were between 100,000 to 150,000 child deaths per year in the country - or between 270 and 400 daily. He was speaking at a briefing by Unicef of its annual report - The State of the World's Children. The mortality rate is a critical indicator of the well-being of children. About 21 per cent of child deaths in Burma are caused by acute respiratory infection, followed by pneumonia, diarrhoea and septicaemia. The report rated the country as having the 40th highest child mortality rate in the world. However, it said the death rate for young children in Burma had been reduced by 1.6 per cent between 1990 and 2006. In 2000, the World Health Organisation ranked Burma's overall health care system as the world's second worst after war-ravaged Sierra Leone. Tens of thousands of people die each year from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, dysentery, diarrhoea and other illnesses.