August 18, 2014 marks 500 days to reach the Millennium Development Goals, the set of goals signed into action in September 2000 to reduce extreme poverty in a variety of topic areas from eradicating poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability. MDG 4, or reduce child mortality, laid out a concrete goal to reduce child mortality by two-thirds starting with data collected from 1990. MDG 4 has yet to be reached and experts agree that it won’t be met by September 2015 unless the current rate of child mortality is quadrupled. Even so, work is still being done globally to lower the child mortality rate ahead of September 2015. Child mortality has already decreased by nearly 50 percent since 1990.
JOIN US FOR A TWITTER CHAT ABOUT MDG 4
What: Twitter chat about MDG 4
Why: We are lending our voice to a discussion about the current rates of child mortality reductions and will look at how many are working to reduce mortality rates and how the momentum can be sustained through 2015 and beyond.
When: August 18, 2014
Time: 12 PM EST – 1 PM EST
Who: Host @socialgoodmoms
- @dbarash – Chief Medical Officer & Executive Director, Global Health for the GE Foundation. Enabling sustainable access to quality healthcare via corporate philanthropy.
- @Every_Newborn – Every Newborn is an action plan to end preventable deaths.
- @GE_Foundation – We work with our partners to solve some of the world’s toughest problems in education, health, disaster relief and economic development. Follow our work!
- @HealthyNewborns – Addressing critical knowledge gaps in newborn health, advocating for newborns in the global health agenda.
- @ThousandDays – Helping break the cycle of hunger & poverty by championing better nutrition for women & children. Changing the future, all in a 1,000 days work.
- @VaxAmbassadors – Each year, over 1.5 million children die before their 5th birthday from vaccine-preventable diseases. Join us so EVERY child can receive a healthy start at life
According to the 2014 Millennium Development Goal Report key milestones have already been met to increasingly reach MDG 4.
- The child mortality rate has almost halved since 1990; six million fewer children died in 2012 than in 1990.
- During the period from 2005 to 2012, the annual rate of reduction in under-five mortality was more than three times faster than between 1990 and 1995.
- Globally, four out of every five deaths of children under age five continue to occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia.
- Immunization against measles helped prevent nearly 14 million deaths between 2000 and 2012.
Every region of the world save sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania has reduced its child mortality rate by more than 50 percent. Based on data in the new Millennium Development Goal report, MDG 4 will not be met until 2028 if the same rate of child mortality reductions remains at current levels. Today 6.6 million children under the age of five die every day, down from 12.6 million in 1990. Most of the current child deaths are a result of preventable causes including the three biggest child killers: pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria.
About David M. Barash, M.D.
David M. Barash, M.D. is the Executive Director of the Global Health Portfolio and Chief Medical Officer for the GE Foundation. Prior to joining the GE Foundation, Dr. Barash was Chief Medical Officer of Life Care Solutions and Executive Medical Director at GE Healthcare since November 2010. Dr. Barash has been practicing Emergency Medicine for 30 years in New York and New England and in 1997, he redirected his career to the commercialization and delivery of new technology, working to close the gap that exists between the brainstorm of a new technology and implementation at the bedside.
The GE Foundation, the philanthropic organization of GE, is committed to building a world that works better. We empower people by helping them build the skills they need to succeed in a global economy. We equip communities with the technology and capacity to improve access to better health and education. We elevate ideas that are tackling the world’s toughest challenges to advance economic development and improve lives. The GE Foundation is powered by the generosity and talent of our employees, who have a strong commitment to their communities. We are at work making the world work better. Follow the GE Foundation at www.gefoundation.com and on Twitter at @GE_Foundation.
Featured Photo: Jennifer James