Diseases Kill More Young Than Africa Famine, Group Says
WASHINGTON — About 10 times more children in developing nations are dying because of contaminated water, poor nutrition and common treatable diseases than have died in the African famine, a private research group said Saturday.
Without massive relief efforts, the problems will threaten half the world’s children, a report by the Worldwatch Institute warned.
“More children die because they are improperly weaned than because of famine,” wrote Worldwatch researcher William Chandler in his report, “Investing in Children.”
“More children die because their parents do not know how to manage diarrhea than because of epidemics. More children die because their mothers did not space births far enough apart than because of drought.”
The report estimated that 17 million children die annually from poor nutrition, diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia, measles, whooping cough and tetanus.
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