Study: Poor Pinoy kids less likely to get health care in RP
abs-cbnnews.com | 05/06/2008 10:32 AM
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By DAVID DIZON
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Poor Filipino children are less likely to get basic health care in the Philippines despite government efforts to give medical treatment to all Pinoy kids five years old and below, a study by a US-based global independent humanitarian organization revealed Tuesday.
Save the Children's ninth annual State of the World's Mothers report said only 31 percent of Filipino children under the age of 5 do not get basic health care. This placed the Philippines on top of a list of 55 developing nations in terms of providing health care to children. The study said the 55 countries account for nearly 60 percent of the world's under-5 population and 83 percent of all child deaths worldwide.
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• Closing the survival gap for children under 5
The study said the poorest Filipino children are 3.2 times more likely to go without essential health care due to inequities in health care provided to the poorest children compared to children born to more well-off families. It said at least 46 percent of the poorest children in the Philippines lacked health care compared to 14 percent of children in more well-off families.
The study said that in 12 of the 55 countries, the poorest children are three or more times more likely to die than the richest children. These countries include Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bolivia, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and the Philippines. Peru has the widest gap in child death rates between the rich and poor with the poorest Peruvian children 7.4 times more likely to die than the richest Peruvian children.
"A child's chance of celebrating a fifth birthday should not largely depend on the country or community where he or she is born," said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children, upon issuing the report.
"We need to do a better job of reaching the poorest children with basic health measures like vaccines, antibiotics and skilled care at childbirth. These simple measures, while taken for granted in the United States, are not reaching millions of children under age 5, and can determine whether a child lives or dies in poor countries and communities."
Basic health care is defined as a package of lifesaving interventions that includes prenatal care, skilled care at childbirth, immunizations and treatment for diarrhea and pneumonia.
'Poor Pinoy kids more likely to die due to lack of health care'
The study said the Philippines is making good progress in improving health care for children and has achieved a 48 percent reduction in its under-5 death rate since 1990. Most of the progress, however, has favored the nation's more well-off children.
The study said the Philippines has one of the lowest newborn mortality rates in the developing world with only 15 of every 1,000 births ending in death. Sixty percent of births in the Philippines are assisted by trained personnel, but the disparity between rich and poor is wide, with 92 percent of births among the wealthiest assisted by skilled health professionals, compared to 25 percent among the poorest.
It also noted that the child survival gap grew by 18 percent from 1998 to 2003 after the Department of Health launched initiatives to promote immunizations, oral rehydration therapy to treat life-threatening diarrhea, and breastfeeding to improve early childhood nutrition.
It said 92 percent of one-year-olds in the Philippines are vaccinated against measles while more than 75 percent of children with diarrhea receive oral rehydration therapy
The report, however, noted that a poor child in the Philippines is 3.2 times more likely than a rich child to die before reaching age 5.
"The Philippines could save many more children’s lives by targeting health care to the poor. If all children survived at the same rates as the wealthiest children, 35 percent of the Philippines’ under-5 deaths could be averted. That means 26,000 Philippine children would be saved each year," the study said.
200 million children worldwide without health care
The report said more than 200 million children under age 5 do not get basic health care when they need it, with the poorest children missing out and most at risk of dying. According to experts, 60 percent of the nearly 10 million children who die every year could be saved by delivering basic health services through a health facility or community health worker.
Save the Children said countries should design health care programs to better target the poorest and most marginalized mothers and children. It said countries should also invest in community health workers to reach the poorest of the poor with essential life-saving care while delivering a basic package of maternal, newborn and child health care.
"To save lives, we need to close the coverage gap for all children, but especially the gap between the rich and poor," the report said.
