Malnutrition is an important main or contributing cause of childhood death in most poor countries. Therefore it is important to determine the growth and nutritional status of all children seen at a clinic, admitted to a hospital, as well as all children who die. The nutritional status of all children who die must be recorded.
An assessment of the HIV status of each under-5 deaths should be made. Otherwise children who have died with AIDS may be misclassified. Often the HIV status of children who die is not known. As a result, the role of HIV infection is missed. Clinical signs of HIV infection must always be looked for and [...]
AIDS is becoming a much more common cause of death both in children and adults. Many of these children will eventually die of other infections such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, septicaemia and tuberculosis. Even if a child is not HIV-infected, death of one or both parents will increase their risk of dying under the age of [...]
Lower respiratory tract infection Diarrhoeal disease Septicaemia AIDS Severe malnutrition Tuberculosis This data is from the Child Health Care Problem Identification Programme (Child PIP). Infections are the most common cause of under-5 mortality in South Africa. The most common cause of death in the 5–18 year age group in South Africa is trauma (e.g. motor [...]
