Health and nutrition
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© UNICEF/EAP02028d/YR |
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Volunteers help improve mother and child health in Thailand |
Our region has made great strides in improving children’s health. Immunization drives have dramatically reduced the number of deaths from traditional childhood diseases such as measles. Consequently, mortality rates of children under the age of five have declined in many countries. But these positive trends belie the challenges our region still faces:
- Progress in reducing under-5 mortality rate is slowing. Since 1994, Cambodia and the DPR Korea have been recording higher child and infant mortality rates. Kiribati, Myanmar, Philippines and Papua New Guinea have shown little improvement in the past decade or so.
- Increasing social and economic disparities. Our region’s growing prosperity has done little to alleviate unequal access to high-quality health services and healthy environments. In fact, it has worsened the situation in some countries. The diseases that are killing young children in our region arise from poverty and social inequities. Disparities exist between countries and between populations within countries.
- Malnutrition. Undernutrition is a stubborn and pervasive problem in our region. Excluding China, 26 per cent of our region’s children are underweight. More than a third of children younger than 5 are stunted in 10 countries. Some countries also are witnessing rises in another form of malnutrition: obesity. This is creating a double burden in countries and even within a family as undernutrition occurs side-by-side with obesity.
- Maternal deaths. Around 40,000 women in our region die every year because of pregnancy and childbirth.
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© UNICEF/ETMR00069 |
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Post-natal care in Timor-Leste |
UNICEF focuses on the following areas in improving the health and nutrition of all children and women in our region:
