NEW DELHI: India and Nigeria accounted for nearly 42 per cent of almost 500,000 child deaths globally due to diarrhoeal disease in 2015, a Lancet study has said.
The study found that diarrhoea is the fourth leading cause of death for children and responsible for 8.6 per cent of all deaths of children aged under five.
It pointed out that 42 per cent of these deaths occur in India and Nigeria alone.
“Chad and Niger had the highest child mortality rates for diarrhoeal disease, with 594 and 485 deaths per 100,000 children each year, respectively.
“However, the largest number of deaths occurred in India and Nigeria, contributing 42 per cent of all 499,000 child deaths in 2015 (105,000 and 103,000 deaths, respectively),” the new Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal said.
It also noted that the number of child deaths caused by diarrhoea reduced by a third between 2005-2015, but mortality rates remain highest in some of the world’s poorest countries, with diarrhoea killing almost half a million children under five each year worldwide. (AGENCIES)
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