Newborns and young children are by far the most susceptible to illness and death – especially those living in low-income nations. In North America we are appalled over the death of a child, were such horrific events are rare and almost always preventable. But in much of Africa and southern Asia one child in five dies before starting school. In Angola, where I continue to work each summer, pediatric death is so frequent that families normally expect a number of their offspring to not survive.
What’s the world’s response this is atrocity? Clearly this is a complex question. But one indication of response is the distribution of healthcare personnel with potential to intervene. In comparison with the concentration of childhood death, the concentration of physicians is almost entire inverse. Where there is the most preventable childhood death we also find the very fewest physicians.
Such reality is the very reason for organizations like INMED – equipping healthcare personnel with unique vision and skills necessary to care for our world’s most forgotten.