Summary of Week 5

We have now reached the end of Week 5. We hope you now have a deeper understanding of some of the progress, challenges and future directions for child health.

Deaths in under-fives have almost halved since 1990. Excluding the neonatal period, infectious diseases cause most of the deaths in this age group, and much of the reduction in mortality has been driven by significant advances in combating malaria, HIV, measles, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

We have also demonstrated the importance of going beyond survival, highlighting the attention that must be paid to a child’s growth and development in relation to reaching future potential both in terms of health and beyond.

Finally we looked to the future. To make further gains in child survival and tackle new threats and challenges we will require innovative approaches, increased investments, scaled up interventions and strengthened health services, and only this will ensure that the most vulnerable children have access to life-saving treatments and preventative measures.

In the final week of the course we will bring each aspect of the lifecycle together and explore ideas for integrated approaches in the Sustainable Development Goal era.