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Goal #4: Reduce Child Mortality
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Myth #1: The problem of child survival worldwide is too big to solve.
Reality: We know what works. The problem is big. Almost 30,000 children under 5 die each day — most of them in the developing world. But simple, affordable measures such as vaccines, oral rehydration therapy to treat diarrhea, drugs to treat infections, insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria, and vitamin A supplements could help save the lives of millions of children.
Myth #2:We can’t afford to do what’s needed.
Reality: Saving children’s lives is not only the right thing to do, it’s affordable. The tools that can save these lives are not expensive. For example, antibiotics to treat pneumonia can cost as little as 15 cents. A child can be immunized against six major childhood diseases for as little as $15, and a one-year dose of vitamin A capsules costs just a few cents. While each of these measures can prevent illness or death, they work best when delivered as a basic child health package.
Myth #3: The U.S. government is doing all it can.
Reality: We are not doing our fair share. In the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. leadership was instrumental in providing funds and expertise that saved millions of children’s lives in the developing world. But current funding for child survival and maternal health programs falls far short of needs, threatening to undermine the success achieved to date. The Bush administration’s July 2005 pledge of more funding to fight malaria, if realized, is a good start: it would help save 850,000 children under 5 every year. But more is needed.
Myth #4: Foreign aid for child survival doesn’t work.
Reality: Millions of children are alive today because of child survival programs. Past progress shows we have the tools and know how to save children’s lives.
- In southern Africa , an immunization campaign virtually eliminated measles as a cause of death among children under 5.
- Vitamin A is credited with saving a million young lives between 1998 and 2000 alone.
- Oral rehydration therapy is credited with cutting diarrhea-related deaths in half during the last decade and preventing 1 million deaths per year.
Myth #5: Most Americans don’t care about problems overseas.
Reality: Polling over the past 10 years shows that Americans place child survival among their highest priorities for foreign assistance, and that most believe the United States should spend about 10 percent of the federal budget on foreign assistance. In reality, less than one-half of one percent of the U.S. budget goes for development assistance.
