Child Global Health Facts and Figures

Leading preventable causes of ~5 million children under 5 dying each year

Effective interventions currently used to prevent children under 5 dying from leading infectious diseases

• Pneumonia
  • The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine are the most powerful interventions for preventing pneumonia-related child deaths. They can prevent over 1,075,000 child deaths per year, according to WHO.
• Diarrheal Diseases
  • Rotavirus vaccines can prevent many severe cases of diarrhea, and treatment with low-osmolarity oral rehydration solution with zinc is a lifesaving intervention, according to WHO.
• Malaria
  • According to CDC, the most effective defense against malaria deaths in children is the use of insecticide-treated bed nets. Dual-insecticide nets prevented 13 million cases and saved 25,000 lives between 2019–2022,according to the New Nets Project. And a study published in The Lancet showed that in Tanzania they cut infections in children by nearly half.
  • Indoor residual spraying kills mosquitoes resting on walls before they can transmit malaria. Newly WHO-recommended spatial repellents reduced infections by more than 30% in Kenya, even where resistance is high.
  • Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the gold standard to treat and cure malaria, including the recent approval of the first version for newborns and young infants.
  • In the R&D pipeline are single-dose cures for malaria to simplify treatment and adherence, as well as gene drive—a method to genetically modify mosquitoes to reduce their ability to carry and spread malaria—which could cut transmission by more than 70% from a single field release, according to a study published in Nature.
• Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
  • According to CDC, infants should be protected by either of the following (and most babies don’t need both): the maternal RSV vaccine, which passes antibodies to the baby for about 6 months after birth; or a long-acting antibody at the start of RSV season.
• Group B Streptococcus (GBS)
  • Currently, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the most effective way to prevent newborns from dying of GBS is for pregnant women who carry the bacteria to receive antibiotics during labor, which has been shown to greatly reduce the risk of infection in babies.
• HIV/AIDS
  • Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy saves lives and prevents new HIV infections. According to the Global Fund, more than 25 million people were on ARVs in 2024. For children, giving ARV to pregnant and breastfeeding people living with HIV is the most effective way to prevent mother-to-child transmission, cutting the risk to less than one percent, according to NIH.
  • WHO recently recommended a new long-acting injectable HIV prevention option, lenacapavir, that only needs to be taken twice a year. It has the potential to greatly expand protection for women and adolescent girls at high risk of infection, and in turn, protect their future children from HIV.