“Meeting the health needs of children in low- and middle-income countries is central to The Union’s vision of health solutions for the poor, and our programmes address some of the key issues outlined in the plan”, says José Luis Castro, Interim Executive Director of The Union.
Poverty and disease: Tuberculosis has long been recognised as a disease that thrives in “adverse” settings where people are afflicted by poverty, war, natural disasters, and crowded, unsanitary living conditions. A curable disease that kills 1.7 million people each year, TB will continue to elude control in a world where 364.5 million children live on less than US$ 1.25 per day and close to 20 million are refugees or internally displaced. The Union’s TB control model, known as DOTS, is fundamental to today’s Stop TB strategy, which has successfully treated 51 million patients since 1995. In 2012, The Union supported the TB control efforts of more than 100 countries.
HIV/AIDS: 3.3 million children under 14 are living with HIV today. The ongoing care for these children is a major health challenge in low-income countries. The Union’s operational research has shown how HIV and TB-HIV can be successfully treated through the primary health centres that serve millions of patients in these settings. Our experts have also developed training programmes to build capacity in treating children with HIV-related lung diseases, a leading cause of death.
Early childhood mortality: 6.9 million children under 5 die each year from largely preventable causes. Pneumonia is one of the major such causes, killing 1.3 million children and accounting for 18% of child mortality. The Union’s model for treating child pneumonia with standard case management reduced mortality by more than half in Malawi, demonstrating that these deaths are needless.
Tobacco control: One of the most destructive forms of exploitation among the young is the promotion of tobacco use, which kills 6 million people each year. The tobacco industry is dedicated to cultivating young and vulnerable populations as new markets for their deadly products. In addition, family money spent on tobacco is diverted from other needs, including food, housing, clothing, health care, and education. Through its participation in the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, The Union has advised more than 40 countries on the development of national and subnational tobacco control laws that are helping to stop this tobacco pandemic.
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