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The global burden of vaccine preventable infectious diseases in children less than 5 years of age: Can we do better?

Lawrence D. Frenkel

Globally an estimated 700,000 children under 5 years of age die of vaccine preventable diseases each year! Almost 99% of children who died lived in low-and middle-income countries. The leading risk factors for mortality include: lack of exclusive breast feeding, poor nutrition, indoor air pollution, low birth weight, crowding, poor hygiene, lack of access to health care, and most importantly lack of immunizations. Accurate specific pediatric infectious disease morbidity and mortality statistics are subject to many serious limitations, particularly in the less developed geographical regions (i.e., low-income). The major pathogens responsible for these deaths include: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b, Bordetella pertussis, influenza virus, measles virus, and rotavirus. Issues regarding, the burden of disease mortality, disease transmission, available vaccines, as well as vaccine successes and shortcomings for specific pathogens are discussed. Although much success in preventing these childhood deaths has been made globally, much remains to be done.