Economic crisis could cause deaths of four lakh children: Report

LONDON: The ravaging economic turmoil could sniff out lives of as many as 4,00,000 children and the crisis is already affecting initiatives to improve maternal care and bring down child death rates, the World Health Organisation has said.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan told anewspaper here that an estimated between 2,00,000 to 4,00,000 additional child deaths due to the economic downturn was credible.

"... an estimate of between 200,000 and 400,000 additional child deaths per year caused by the downturn was entirely credible," Chan was quoted as saying.

"There is no reason why we should doubt that this (death toll) will happen if we fail to act... Because if we do not, more women will suffer or die because of complications arising from pregnancy and delivery, and more children will die because of lack of food or immunisation or poor water and sanitation," Chan added.

Quoting Chan, the report published online said that past recessions have ample evidence to demonstrate the fact. "And the two groups that are most vulnerable are women and children, especially girls," she noted.

Further, Chan said that risks posed by the credit crunch to poor nations were already taking hold.

"Thousands of women and children are dying as a direct consequence of the current economic crisis which is already derailing efforts to improve maternal care and cut child death rates," the daily said attributing to Chan.

According to the daily, more than half a million women die from preventable complications in pregnancy or childbirth every year, while it is calculated that a child dies from health-related problems every three seconds.