HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — While AIDS and malaria get most of the headlines, global health organizations are trying to raise awareness that diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea have proven more deadly among the world's poorest children.
Even though cheap tools could prevent and cure both diseases, each year they kill an estimated 3.5 million kids under the age of 5 globally. That's more than HIV and malaria combined.
A doctor with the U.N. children's agency UNICEF in Africa calls the diseases "age-old traditional killers." He says they've been neglected and, as a result, "remain with us."
Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under 5, accounting for about 20 percent of child deaths. It claims more then 2 million lives annually. AIDS, in contrast, accounts for about 2 percent.
Disease such as cholera and rotavirus, often caused by drinking dirty water, kill 1.5 million children each year, most under 2 years old.
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<<APPHOTO NY365 (12/11/08)>>
: FILE - This Dec. 11, 2008 file photo shows a young boy drinking clean water from a borehole in Harare, Zimbabwe. Even though cheap tools could prevent and cure diarrhea and pneumonia, they kill an estimated 3.5 million kids under 5 each year globally, which is more than HIV and malaria combined.
