Vaccines, hospital births prevented 1 mn child deaths in India since 2005

Mortality rates from neonatal tetanus and measles fell by at least 90%

India prevented 1 million deaths among children under five years of age between 2005 and 2015. Three million more deaths could have been prevented had all of India performed as well as some states, a new study published in the international health journal Lancet on September 19 said.

Interventions including timely treatment in the case of diarrhoea, vaccinations for tetanus and measles, and an increase in hospital births have enabled this improvement, one of the study’s authors told IndiaSpend.

Marked improvement

The mortality rate for neonates—children below 28