- More than seven million children and young people died in 2021, according to data from UNICEF. The organization denounces that many of the deaths can be avoided if money is spent to ensure primary care. They demand "political will" for this. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the countries most at risk of death.
Every 4.4 seconds a child or young person dies in 2021. Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, has announced the data and reported that many of the deaths could be prevented if adequate health care was guaranteed in all countries. Unicef expects 59 million children to die by 2030 without measures by the authorities.
In 2021, 2.1 million children and young people aged 5-24 died and five million children under five years. In addition, 1.9 million deaths were born.
Deaths in the first month of life were mainly caused by premature births and the months of November at delivery. Subsequently, diseases are the most frequent, such as pneumonia, diarrhea or malaria.
Vidhya Ganesh, director of Data Analysis, Planning and Management at the Organization, criticized last Tuesday weak political decisions and scarce investments in health: "Avoiding many deaths is possible if politicians have the will to do so," he said. The report contains specific cases in which, by strengthening primary care, the number of deaths has been reduced.
They have also condemned differences between countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is the continent with the highest mortality risk, fifteen times higher than European and American children. South Asia has recorded the highest number of second deaths.