Children suffer in ‘health deserts’

Around 40 million children around the world are marooned in “healthcare deserts”, denied the most basic services and left exposed to easily-preventable and often fatal diseases, according to a recent report.

New research by the charity Save the Children has uncovered such “deserts” in 25 developing countries, where one in seven of all child-ren do not receive any vaccinations for childhood killer diseases, such as diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, or even basic treatment for diarrhoea.

Children are recommended to visit a health worker at least 17 times in their first five years of life, yet many of those living in these areas will never be seen by a doctor, nurse or midwife, the charity said.

The report also reveals that in some countries the number of children living in healthcare deserts increased at points during the last decade.

In Ethiopia, 38 per cent of child-ren are classed as severely healthcare deprived. For Nigeria, this figure is 33 per cent, with the numbers rising between 2000 and 2005 in Ethiopia and 2003-2008 in Nigeria.

India, one of the world’s booming economies, has the largest number of children – 13 million – living in these areas.

The report, Healthcare Deserts – Severe Healthcare Deprivation Among Children in Developing Countries – also shows that it is the world’s poorest children who are most likely to be denied crucial healthcare services. Being more exposed to disease and bad health through poor sanitation, a lack of safe drinking water and malnutrition, children from poor households are three times more likely to live in such areas than children from richer households.