The number of children who died before their fifth birthday has reached a historic low, dropping to 4.9 million in 2022, the latest report by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation showed.

The UN IGME is led by the United Nations Children’s Fund and includes the World Health Organisation, the World Bank Group, and the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

The report released on Wednesday revealed that more children are surviving today than ever before, with the global under-five mortality rate declining by 51 per cent since 2000.

It said several low- and lower-middle-income countries have outpaced this decline, showing that progress is possible when resources are sufficiently allocated to primary health care, including child health and well-being.

“For example, the findings show that Cambodia, Malawi, Mongolia, and Rwanda have reduced under-five mortality by over 75 per cent since 2000”.

The findings, however, showed that despite this progress, there is still a long road ahead to end all preventable child and youth deaths.

“In addition to the 4.9 million lives lost before the age of five – nearly half of which were newborns – the lives of another 2.1 million children and youth aged five to 24 were also cut short. Most of these deaths were concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia,” it noted.

UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell said, “Behind these numbers lie the stories of midwives and skilled health personnel helping mothers safely deliver their newborns, health workers vaccinating and protecting children against deadly diseases, and community health workers who make home visits to support families to ensure the right health and nutrition support for children.

“Through decades of commitment by individuals, communities, and nations to reach children with low-cost, quality, and effective health services, we’ve shown that we have the knowledge and tools to save lives.”

The report added that the loss of life is primarily due to preventable or treatable causes, such as preterm birth, complications around the time of birth, pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria.

It said many lives could have been saved with better access to high-quality primary health care, including essential, low-cost interventions, such as vaccinations, availability of skilled health personnel at birth, vaccinations, support for early and continued breastfeeding, and diagnosis and treatment of childhood illnesses.

“While there has been welcome progress, every year millions of families still suffer the devastating heartbreak of losing a child, often in the very first days after birth,” said WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus.”

“Where a child is born should not dictate whether they live or die. It is critical to improve access to quality health services for every woman and child, including during emergencies and in remote areas.”

The report noted that improving access to quality health services and saving children’s lives

from preventable deaths requires investment in education, jobs, and decent working conditions for health workers to deliver primary health care, including community health workers.