Europe ‘backsliding’ on child health: WHO

COPENHAGEN: Complications linked to births and infections kill nearly 76,000 children under the age of five every year in Europe and Central Asia and is “backsliding” on some health indicators, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

In 2022, the death of 75,647 children before their fifth birthday was recorded in the WHO´s European region -- which comprises 53 countries, including several in Central Asia. The top five causes of death were “preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, congenital heart anomalies, lower respiratory infections, and neonatal sepsis,” the health body said in a report.

The region is known for strong health systems but “is largely stagnating or even backsliding on a range of indicators from child and adolescent health to chronic diseases”, the WHO said.

“In some countries mortality in children under five, and even maternal mortality, is also plateauing or increasing or reversing... there is no time to be complacent,” Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, director of the WHO´s division of country health policies and systems, said during an online press conference.

While the child death rate remains very low in Europe, there are considerable differences between the best and worst performing countries. Most EU countries have between 1.5 and 4.1 deaths of under fives per 1,000 births, in contrast to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, where the rate is between 18.2 and 40.4.

The UN health agency noted other worrying issues for the health of children and adolescents in the region. It said one in five adolescents suffers from a mental health condition, suicide remains the leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29, and girls systematically report lower levels of mental well-being compared with boys.