An appalling waste of human life remains with us. Every single day, on average, 19,000 children under five die of mainly preventable causes: diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles, malaria, HIV/AIDS and, importantly, under-nutrition, which underlies the rest.
Most of these deaths occur in the Majority World and are due to the shameful neglect of primary healthcare, which can provide effective and sustainable interventions. A staggering 82 per cent of the 6.9 million deaths of the under-fives recorded in 2011 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In Sierra Leone, almost two children in every ten do not reach their fifth birthday.
