Decreasing Childhood Mortality Through Community Based Programs

1. Integrated Management of Childhood Illness at the Community Level
The Majority of children under 5 years of age in developing countries die at home without accessing health care. UN Foundation supports projects involved in changing the care-seeking behavior of caretakers by improving their skills to recognize diseases; to provide care at home when appropriate; and to take sick children to health facilities when care at home is not enough. Success involves the close integration of many interventions such as provision of micronutrients, insecticide treated bednets, oral rehydration solutions (with safe water), deworming and malaria drugs, improved sanitation, and access to immunizations.

2. Nutrition: Micronutrients
Malnutrition is a known contributor to child mortality, and UNF is working to ensure that children consume adequate amounts of micronutrients, including iron, vitamin A, iodine, and Zinc. With adequate amounts of micronutrients, children are better able to survive other diseases such as measles and malaria, two major killers of children under five years of age.

3. HIV/AIDS
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a large and growing global problem that has the potential to nullify many of the achievements that have been made to decrease child mortality. UNF’s focus is to support projects that prevent transmission of HIV infection from mother to child and encourage youth to change risky behaviors.

Immunization: Using extensive partnerships to strengthen the public health infrastructure to control infectious diseases.

1. Polio
Polio is one of the few diseases that is close to being eradicated, providing a unique public health opportunity to make a lasting contribution to humanity. Transmission of the wild poliovirus is anticipated to cease by 2003, with active global surveillance efforts through 2005 to ensure the world that polio is eradicated. The UN Foundation is involved in the final stages of polio eradication which are the most difficult and costly because remaining countries pose unique challenges, including internal conflicts.

2. Measles
Measles affect over 30 million children and claims 475,000 lives each year - more than half of them in Africa.
Measles is the single leading cause of vaccine-preventable death among children. With our partners, the UN Foundation is playing a vital role towards the reduction of measles morbidity and mortality in Africa.

3. Management
Management of health services, particularly at the midlevel (district), is key to successful immunization programs. The UN Foundation supports efforts to improve managers' skills and the tools available to managers to operate under very challenging logistical and financial conditions.

4. Integrated Disease Surveillance (IDS)
Integrated Disease Surveillance (and response) is the backbone of successful infectious disease control. Polio eradication efforts have set a standard for excellent disease surveillance leading to the challenge of providing equally effective surveillance for other diseases such as measles, yellow fever, meningitis, cholera, and other vaccine preventable diseases. The UN Foundation and our partners support the strengthening, expansion, and integration of surveillance for major diseases by building upon the polio eradication model.

5. Sustainable Outreach Services (SOS)
Sustainable Outreach Services revitalizes an approach tried previously, then neglected, to increase access to health services for the most hard to reach populations in developing countries. The services are organized around immunizations which is the point at which caregivers are most likely to have contact with health services. Other services such as bednet distribution are integrated with the immunization contact.

Preventing Tobacco Use

Tobacco has an important role in contributing to mortality. Indeed, tobacco has become the single most lethal agent to humanity – more people die of tobacco-related diseases each year than due to any bacteria or virus. Tobacco addiction is a child health problem because 90% of those who smoke begin doing so before their 18th birthday. Tobacco continues to be marketed aggressively to children, particularly in developing countries.