Free Care Would Stop 250,000 Child Deaths
Posted on: Friday, 30 September 2005, 06:01 CDT
Scrapping healthcare charges in Africa could save the lives of almost a quarter of a million children across the continent each year.
Some of the poorest children are missing out on basic drugs to combat malaria, dysentery and pneumonia because of the fees charged.
And charities called on world leaders to provide extra funding for the medicines to be made available to a growing number of people.
Researchers in London working for Save the Children said that by abolishing the fees more than 233,000 child deaths could be prevented across 20 African countries.
The research, published in this week's British Medical Journal, said patients were forced to pay for treatments in most sub-Saharan countries.
The charges were introduced to tackle severe under-funding in national health services but evidence showed that the fees do not generate much revenue and hit the poorest in society far harder.
Researchers calculated wiping out charges could prevent 6.3 per cent of deaths in children under five.
Replacing fees with a fairer charging system should be seen as an effective first step towards improving children's access to health services and achieving part of the UN's plan to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and reduce child mortality by 2015
Source: Birmingham Post; Birmingham (UK)
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