Leaders told to fight diarrhoea

Kampala

Non-government organisations have asked African heads of state slated to meet in Kampala to fight diarrhoea in children under the age of five. A report published by the Lancet medical journal last month indicates that diarrhoea has overtaken pneumonia as the top killer of children on the continent, with 2,000 children dying everyday because of the disease.

Big child killer
“The biggest killer of children under the age of five in Africa is in danger of being entirely overlooked at this week’s African Union summit in Uganda,” reads a statement from Water Aid, an international organisation working to provide safe domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest communities. “These are deaths that are preventable through access to sanitation, hygiene education and clean water.”

The report indicated that although diarrhoea and pneumonia do not make global headlines like HIV/Aids and malaria, they kill an estimated 3.5 million children under the age of five each year globally — more than HIV and malaria combined.

Ms Yunia Musaazi, the WaterAid’s policy adviser in East Africa, yesterday said: “If African leaders are serious about tackling child deaths across our continent, they must tackle diarrhoea, the biggest killer of our children.” “Only if improved access to sanitation is addressed will we see any kind of progress on the fourth MDG (Millennium Development Goal) of reduce child mortality by two-thirds.”