A meeting of health experts, convened by the United Nations agency charged with improving public health, has begun today to assess the impact of air pollution, unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation on children living in six African countries.
The information gathered at the three-day meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, from the national profiles of Benin, Ethiopia, the Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Seychelles and Zimbabwe will be used to implement the UN World Health Organizations (WHO) Healthy Environments for Children Initiative in Africa.
Environmental health threats to children are a growing cause for concern in Africa, according to WHO, which estimates that up to 70 per cent of child deaths in the continent are linked to environmental risk factors. These include respiratory infection, diarrhoea, measles, malaria, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition.
Some 20 per cent of children born on the continent may not live to see their fifth birthday, while many who survive are not likely to develop their full potential because of long-term health disorders, the agency said.
The major classes of environmental risks for African children are inadequate access to safe drinking water, poor hygiene and sanitation, disease vectors, air pollution, chemical hazards and accidental injuries.
The experts at the technical consultation were being hosted by the Medical Research Council of South Africa on behalf of WHOs Regional Office for Africa and the profiles were developed with the support of the Swedish Expertise Fund.
WHO is launching a new publication at the meeting entitled “Making a difference: indicators to improve childrens environmental health.” Those indicators are currently being piloted in the Americas, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.
The new indicators will help public health officials monitor childrens exposure to air pollution by tracking the percentage of children living in homes using biomass fuels for cooking, their annual exposure to outdoor air pollution and other environmental risks.
