Ledger DC Journal - News, Politics & Crime

The toughest diseases on children worldwide are common ailments and should be treatable in most cases. Pneumonia and diarrhea are the top killers of children from disease. Though many kids battle through these illnesses and they are treatable, they claim more lives than AIDS and malaria. Not enough treatment is getting to the children in a timely manner and the results are often fatal.

The reason for that is that the kids are poor and live in impoverished nations. The treatment is available and could save many of the ill children, but it doesn't make it to the patient.

Top News notes in a report that, "Despite the availability of cheap tools to help prevent both these diseases, they contribute in killing an estimated 3.5 million kids under 5 every year globally which is way more than HIV and malaria combined."


The Associated Press adds, "Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under 5, claiming more then 2 million lives annually or about 20 percent of all child deaths." Pneumonia is treatable with inexpensive antibiotics, if caught early, yet, UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimate less than 20% of receive medication for the condition.

Diarrheal diseases kill 1.5 million children every year and most of them are under 2 years old. The reason it hits them so hard and fast is because of their underlying conditions. Many suffer from weakened immune systems and malnutrition.