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Get the facts about the health challenges that impoverished children and their families are facing.
• Malaria kills approximately 1 million children per year, many of them under age 5 and most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
• One in every six infants is not immunized against tuberculosis.
• One in every four children is not immunized against measles.
• Only 50 percent of the world's infants are fully immunized against hepatitis B.
• Only 64 percent of newborns are protected against tetanus.
• Malaria, together with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, is one of the major public health challenges undermining development in the poorest countries in the world.
• Measles remains a leading cause of death among young children, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine for the past 40 years.
• More than 95 percent of measles deaths occur in countries with per capita gross national income of less than U.S.$1,000.
• There are 1.5 million diarrheal-related deaths per year among children under 5.
• Children under age 5 account for less than 10 percent of the world's population, but suffer from 40 percent of the diseases attributed to environmental factors.
• Acute respiratory infections annually kill an estimated 2 million children under the age of 5.
• About 1.8 million people, most of whom are children, die annually of food-borne diseases.
• Approximately 90 percent of child deaths worldwide occur in the first year of life.
Sources: www.who.int, www.unicef.org