Disability and Child mortality

• Every year 10,8 million children under the age of 5 die. 99% of them live in developing countries;
• The child mortality rate for children with disabilities and younger than 5 is as high as 80%, even in those countries characterized by a child mortality rate lower than 20%.

High levels of child mortality rates are often caused by diseases that are easily prevented or treated such as diarrhoea, measles, undernourishment, pneumonia and malaria. Interventions and campaigns to lower child mortality rates should be orientated and focused on children with disabilities as well as on others, maybe even more so. Children with disabilities run a higher risk to suffer from these diseases and have less access to health care.

Children with disabilities need substantial care. For most families in the South it’s a high price to pay: they invest a considerable amount of time and income in caring for their child with disabilities. Despite the efforts of their family and caretakers, children with disabilities often do not receive the most primary medical care they need due to a lack of means. No access to drinking water, no sanitary facilities and the lack of a balanced diet mean an extra burden and risk for children who are already face the difficulties caused by their disability. Children in the South easily fall victim to under- and malnutrition, a well-known cause of disability and child mortality. Besides these practical obstacles in life, children with disabilities are confronted with stigmatization, even within their own family. In some societies disability is still such a taboo that children with disabilities are murdered after birth. If they live they are often ignored or hidden by the family. Their chances for development and appropriate medical care drop down to almost none.

Lowering child mortality rates for children with disabilities demands a multidisciplinary approach. Appropriately the article 25 of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that people with disabilities can rely on the same rights as anyone else. Equality in health care rights without differentiation based on disability is the ultimate objective. According to the same Convention these rights should incorporate special attention to the particular needs of people with disabilities.