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Health

11 January, 2023

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An estimated 5 million children died before their fifth birthday and another 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives in 2021.

This is according to the latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).

According to their latest report, 1.9 million babies were stillborn during the same period. Many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable access and high-quality maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health care.

Vidhya Ganesh, UNICEF Director of the Division of Data Analytics, Planning and Monitoring in a statement said every day, too many parents are facing the trauma of losing their children, sometimes even before their first breath.

UN agencies warn that if swift action is not taken to improve health services, almost 59 million children and youth will die before 2030, and nearly 16 million babies will be lost to stillbirth.