CNS: child

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Will all children be born free of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis-B by 2030?

[हिंदी] Despite knowing how to prevent vertical transmission (from mother to the baby) of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis-B infections, we are failing with every child who is born with either of these preventable infections. We have the science-backed tools to ensure that all children are born free of these three infections. Failing to deploy them with utmost effectiveness is highly unacceptable.

5000 vertical HIV transmissions in India in 2021

States need tailored interventions to eliminate vertical transmission

Written by: Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant

Edited by: Dr Trupti Gilada (CNS Medical Editor HIV & TB science)

published in aidsmap on 19 February 2024

published in aidsmap on 19 February 2024

[video] Ensuring no new child or youth gets addicted to tobacco is vital cog-in-the-wheel to #endTobacco

[video] Why UNICEF head has always been an American white citizen since 1946? Why not from other UN member nations?

"Nothing about us, without us"

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent
December 31, 2012, will always be a special day for Sheila Devi. It was the day the 21-year old played a pivotal role in the closure of a diagnostic centre suspected of misusing technology to eliminate girls. It was because of her participation in a decoy operation that the police was able to swoop down on the clinic located near her village in Bakshi Ka Talab block of Lucknow district in the most populous Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Breaking taboos, reaping dividends

Swapna Majumdar, CNS Special Correspondent

Photo credit: CNS Image Library

Consider these statistics: Globally, 370,000 million children are married every day. By 2020, an additional 142 million girls will be married before their 18th birthday. 6 million adolescent pregnancies occur in South Asia-- 90% of them inside marriage. Further, 34% of all unsafe abortions in the Asia Pacific region happen to women below the age of 25.

Swapna Majumdar - CNS
Over three million children died before their fifth birthday in 2010 alone in the Asia Pacific region. Thousands of mothers continue to die unnecessarily while giving birth with this region accounting for close to half of the nearly 500,000 maternal deaths recorded annually across the world. Many of these deaths can be prevented if sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services are accessible and affordable. It is here that innovative government health programmes can make a difference.

Bobby Ramakant - CNS
Despite significant momentum to responding to childhood TB in 2013 with launch of first-ever roadmap, are we groping in the dark with very little data on TB in children? Charalambos Sismanidis, a noted expert who was speaking at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health, said that childhood TB data was first reported by countries to the WHO in 2012 but this is not enough. There are gaps in surveillance system as childhood TB does get under-reported (and under-diagnosed).

Bobby Ramakant - CNS
"2013 has been a year of tremendous progress. I am optimistic that paediatric TB will no longer be 'the neglected of the neglected'. With help of UNITAID and US Agency for International Development (USAID) we are embarking on significant changes in this direction” said Dr Melvin Spigelman, President and CEO of Global Alliance of TB Drug Development (TB Alliance). He was addressing the TB Alliance Stakeholders’ Association Annual meeting before the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health opens in Paris later this week.

Chhatra Karki, Nepal
(First published in Kapan Online, Nepal)
More than 74,000 children are dying each year by tuberculosis all over the world. In this context, a lucid roadmap has been declared by International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), World Health Organization (WHO), Stop TB Partnership and many other leading agencies of the world who are fighting against this disease. It is estimated that 120 million US dollar will be spent to eliminate childhood tuberculosis and tuberculosis with HIV infection.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
A hot and dusty 2 hours ride on bumpy roads brought me from Kanpur to the nondescript Rasoolabad block of Kanpur Dehat, where a Home Based Post Natal Care Project (HBPNC) has brought about measurable improvements in maternal and child health. This project, funded by the World Bank and executed by a Kanpur based NGO Shramik Bharti in Rasoolabad over a period of April 2012--September 2013, has proved to be an effective and innovative approach to avert maternal and neonatal deaths in the rural community by focussing on home based management of Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH), as a large number of maternal deaths occur in the postpartum period of 42 days after delivery, mainly due to haemorrhage.

Kulsum Mustafa - CNS
In UP the child sex ratio is 904 per thousand and 899 for 0-6 years. The national figure is 954: Like in all other development indicators, Uttar Pradesh also lags behind in the child birth registration. While only 67.08% children in the state get their birth registered in the government records, out of this it is a very miniscule percentage which actually are issued the birth registration certificate. Unknown to the child and his parents this lack of data puts the child in the ‘invisible’ category and it becomes a big hurdle in getting a correct picture of the number of children born and living, greatly affecting planning. The process of registration is governed by the 1969 national Act of Registration of Births and Deaths.

Sam Banda Jnr, Malawi
(First published in The Daily Times, Malawi on 28th March 2013): On Sunday March 24, the world came together to commemorate the World TB Day under the theme Stop TB in My Life Time. The World TB Day was designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic and reporter SAM BANDA JNR takes a closer look at the challenge the disease poses on children. TB is an airborne disease and second leading cause of death among infectious diseases worldwide after HIV and Aids. World Health Organisation (WHO) latest figures indicate that at least 500,000 children become ill with TB each year and that up to 70,000 do not survive.

Photo Credit: WHO/M.Gzemska

Carolyn Kavita Tauro - CNS
“I will not take all these medicines for two years... they are very strong medicines. I won’t be able to go to school” said 12 year old Abu (name changed) as the doctor explained to him that his sputum was still positive after six months of treatment. Abu was now affected with Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and the person from whom he had contracted it was his 17 years old brother. Abu’s mother sat helpless recalling all the money she had already spent on doctors, medicines and nutritious food for her children.

Anjali Singh - CNS
Child Sexual Abuse is a topic few are ready to discuss much less address. Thus it came as a welcome surprise when in May 2012 the Indian Parliament enacted its first law specifically outlawing child sexual abuse. Prior to that the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act being notified, different forms of abuse with children in India was covered by laws not designed to address them. So if a girl suffered non-penetrative sexual abuse it would be classified as “assault with intent to outrage the modesty of woman,” and if a boy suffered abuse it would be classified as per the draconian anti-homosexuality law that criminalized, “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.”

[हिंदी] Right to education (RTE) is a top priority, said Dr Dinesh Sharma, Mayor, Lucknow, who was addressing a Child Rights Convention in Lucknow. Over two hundred school children including some differently abled children, hailing from various districts of Uttar Pradesh participated in this convention. Added Dr Sharma: Every child must understand that duties must come first and then rights. He advocated a uniform system of education for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading killer of children, particularly in resource-poor settings, though the true size of the problem is unknown. Estimates of the number of children who contract TB annually range from 300,000 up to 1 million; more than 60,000 die each year but many deaths go unreported, especially in high-burden TB countries. Yet the the current TB drug regimens to treat them are inadequate. In 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) revised its recommended dosages for first-line pediatric TB drugs. However, till today there are no TB drugs for children in the correct dosage forms. With a view to reshape market forces, and catalyze development to improve treatment and reduce mortality among children with TB, UNITAID has provided the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) a three-year grant to accelerate the availability of properly formulated pediatric TB regimens.

During the last three decades, the World Health Assembly (WHA) agreed upon two interventions, which can have far reaching and lasting impacts on global health, if implemented (and not merely endorsed) in their true spirit and letter by the member states. The first one is The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes (The Code), which is an international public health recommendation to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitutes.

Globally, nearly 7 million children under the age of 5 years die every year--two thirds of them before celebrating even their first birthday. Most of these deaths are due to preventable causes like pneumonia, diarrhea and new born respiratory infections and one third of all the under 5 deaths are related to maternal and child under nutrition. A simple intervention comprising early initiation (within the first hour of birth) of breastfeeding, that is continued exclusively for the first six months of life, and later supplemented by complementary feeding, can reduce neonatal mortality by as much as 20%. Yet more than 60% of the world’s infants are deprived of exclusive breastfeeding.

A world without asthma is the ultimate vision of the Global Asthma Network (GAN), launched last week at the University of Auckland. The network aims to improve care for people with asthma around the world. Its work will range from research into the causes of asthma to improving access to essential medicines.