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| Malawi Facts Health Nowhere is the impact of poverty on health more felt than among Malawi's children. As in all developing countries, the killer diseases amongst children are diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles, malaria and malnutrition. Nearly a quarter of the country's children will die before their fifth birthday. Half of all children suffer from moderate to severe stunting due to poor nutrition. This leads to both poor physical and mental development. Furthermore, children who are malnourished cannot resist infection in the same way that well fed children can. The average young child in Malawi is likely to have five episodes of diarrhoea per year. Each episode leads to a worsening of the child's nutritional status. Without access to clean water and adequate sanitation, diarrhoea remains a major killer. Oral rehydration therapy is available to three-quarters of the population and this simple solution saves thousands of lives per year. For a country with so little access to health care, immunisation rates have been good but are now declining. 64% of children between the ages of 12 and 23 months are fully immunised. 77% of pregnant women are immunised against tetanus, which is very effective at preventing neonatal tetanus, a disease with a very high death rate. HIV/AIDS has now become the main health threat and is devastating the lives of its victims, those who care for them, and those left behind to cope with the after effects. | |
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