7 Point Plan

The global burden of childhood diarrhoea

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Each year, an estimated 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea occur among children under five years of age, and estimates suggest that overall incidence has remained relatively stable over the past two decades.⁶ More than half of these cases are in Africa and South Asia (Figure 1), where bouts of diarrhoea are more likely to result in death or other severe outcomes. The incidence of diarrhoeal diseases varies greatly with the seasons and a child’s age. The youngest children are most vulnerable: Incidence is highest in the first two years of life and declines as a child grows older.
 

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Mortality from diarrhoea has declined over the past two decades from an estimated 5 million deaths among children under five to 1.5 million deaths in 2004,⁷ which parallels downward trends in overall under-five mortality during this period. Despite these declines, diarrhoea remains the second most common cause of death among children under five globally (Figure 2), following closely behind pneumonia, the leading killer of young children. Together, pneumonia and diarrhoea account for an estimated 40 per cent of all child deaths around the world each year. Nearly one in five child deaths is due to diarrhoea, a loss of about 1.5 million lives each year. The toll is greater than that caused by AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

Africa and South Asia are home to more than 80 per cent of child deaths due to diarrhoea (Figure 3). Just 15 countries account for almost three quarters of all deaths from diarrhoea among children under five years of age annually (Figure 4).