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Child Health In India
Three children of a family have died within 48 hours after coming down with fever in a village here, prompting the authorities to dispatch a team of doctors to the area to test other children for diseases like malaria and dengue, according to officials. Medical reports of the three children who died in Gularhiya Tola village of Nebua Naurangia block are awaited to ascertain the cause of death, the officials said on Saturday. Pintu Gaur's daughter Manju (7) took ill a week ago. She was taken to a local doctor but she did not get better. She was then taken to the district hospital, where she died on Wednesday, according to the officials. Soon after, Gaur's younger daughter Khushi (3) also developed high fever. As her condition deteriorated, she was referred from the district hospital to BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, where she died on Friday morning. In a third blow to the family, Krishna (5), the son of Gaur's elder brother Dashrath, also came down with fever. He died while he wa
India has witnessed a significant improvement in key maternal and child health indicators between 2014 and 2021, according to a Health Ministry statement. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has declined by 37 points from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-16 to 93 in 2019-21, the statement mentioned, citing the Sample Registration System (SRS) Report 2021 released by the Registrar General of India (RGI) on Wednesday. Similarly, the downward trend of child mortality indicators continued. The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has dropped from 39 per 1000 live births in 2014 to 27 per 1000 live births in 2021. The Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) has declined from 26 per 1000 live births in 2014 to 19 per 1000 live births in 2021. Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) has also improved, dropping from 45 in 2014 to 31 per 1000 live births in 2021. The Sex Ratio at Birth also improved between 2014 and 2031, getting better from 899 to 913, respectively. Total Fertility Rate is consistent at 2.0 in 2021
In the drought-prone villages in many parts of the country, seasonal migration forces families into impossible choices. When parents leave for months to work in sugarcane fields, brick kilns or construction sites, they often take their children along. But those who stay behind are left in the care of grandparents or older siblings, often facing emotional strain and the burden of household responsibilities. For both groups, the consequences are stark: disrupted education, limited access to healthcare, and exposure to child labour and early marriage. The UNICEF, in collaboration with district authorities and NGOs, is working to address this crisis through its 'Kinship and Community-Based Care Programme' in places like drought-prone Jalna in Maharashtra. The initiative, which aims to keep children in their villages under the care of relatives or community members, is part of a broader shift in India's child protection system'?s move away from institutional care toward family-based ..
Genetic defects underlie about a fourth of Chinese children affected by cerebral palsy, and not a lack of oxygen at birth as previously thought, new research has found. Cerebral palsy is a disorder affecting one's ability to move. It is the most common motor disability in children, with symptoms emerging in infancy and early childhood. The disability is sometimes also associated with autism and intellectual deficiencies. Birth asphyxia, or receiving insufficient oxygen at the time of being born, can cause physical harm, especially to the brain, and is considered one of the main causes of cerebral palsy. The world's largest study of cerebral palsy genetics, involving more than 1,500 affected Chinese children, found that mutations were significantly higher in a fourth of these children receiving insufficient oxygen at birth. Researchers said this indicated that birth asphyxia could be secondary to the underlying genetic defects. The results, published in the journal Nature Medicine