Child mortality, also known as under-5 mortality or child death, refers to the death of infants and children under the age of five or between the age of one month to four years depending on the definition. A child's death is emotionally and physically hard on the parents.
According to WHO:
- 5.9 million children under the age of 5 years died in 2015.
- More than half of these early child deaths are due to conditions that could be prevented or treated with access to simple, affordable interventions.
- Leading causes of death in children under 5 years are preterm birth complications, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, diarrhea and malaria. About 45% of all child deaths are linked to malnutrition.
- Children in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 14 times more likely to die before the age of 5 than children in developed regions.
