Every 45 seconds a child in Asia drowns. It is the
second leading cause of death for hundreds of thousands of Asian
children regardless of water conditions.
When we hear of water killing children in under
developed Asian nations we think of water borne diseases like diphtheria
and cholera. We would be wrong, drowning is one of the leading cause of death in Asian nations and it's not just when the floods come.
In Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and two provinces in China 25
percent of the deaths of children between the ages of 1-17 is from
drowning. One half of these drownings are children under the age of four.
UNICEF is calling for programs in these areas to educate about drowning prevention.
"For too long drowning has been a hidden killer," said the Director of
UNICEF's Office of Research, Gordon Alexander in a report from Women of China.
"Over the past three decades countries have made strong, continuous
progress on infectious disease reduction," he added. "However, no impact
has been made on drowning deaths. As a result, drowning is emerging as a
leading cause of death for children after infancy in the countries
surveyed for this report. And yet drowning is off the political radar."
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/339391#ixzz2GSzYXElK
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