State of the world's children: life beyond survival

he inauguration of a global child health section in Archives in May 2004 heralded a unique platform for scientists, public health managers, and multilateral agencies to address the spate of intractable health and social issues confronting today's child in the developing world. The maiden contribution in Archives aptly reviewed the role of poverty, infectious diseases, and malnutrition on the unsatisfactory under-5 mortality rates in developing countries. t also re-echoed the prevailing inequality and inequity in global child health as elucidated by the Bellagio Study Group. 2 About half of the 10.8 million child deaths in year 2000 worldwide occurred in India, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia, although these countries were not necessarily the worst by infant mortality rate ranking. That two thirds of these deaths were preventable by child survival interventions that are currently available and feasible in these countries was most disturbing. In addition, the world's 225 richest individuals control a combined wealth equivalent to the annual income of the poorest 2.5 billion people, almost half of the world's population. 1 4 Undoubtedly, these observations demanded urgent action.