Grief over the loss of a child poses a threat to public health in Sub-Saharan Africa, as nearly two-thirds of mothers in some countries suffer the death of at least one child, a study has found. According to the World Health Organization , 5.3 million children under five died in 2018 globally. The risk of a child dying before reaching five is about eight times higher in Africa than in Europe. According to the study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , more than half of women aged 45 to 49 years in some Sub-Saharan African countries have experienced the death of a child under the age of five. “In the shadows of very high child mortality rates that the global health community typically focuses on are all these grieving parents that never receive any attention.” Emily Smith-Greenaway, University of Southern California “In Benin, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, and Niger, having had at least one infa...
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