Complications from preterm birth has outranked other causes of death in children under the age of 5 for the first time.
Out of the about 6.3 million deaths in children under the age of 5 in 2013, preterm birth complications were believed to contribute to about 1.1 million, Hoffman & Hoffman Worldwide reported. Direct complications from preterm births were found to be responsible for 965,000 deaths during the first 28 days of life and an additional 125,000 deaths between the ages of one month and five years.
"This marks a turning of the tide, a transition from infections to neonatal conditions, especially those related to premature births, and this will require entirely different medical and public health approaches," said Joy Lawn, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, a member of the research team and a long-term adviser to Save the Children. "The success we've seen in the ongoing fight against infectious diseases demonstrates that we can also be successful if we invest in prevention and care for preterm birth."
Researchers are now working to discover what causes preterm birth, and nearly $250 million in new funding is going to the cause.
The countries with the highest rates of premature birth were found to be: "India (361,600), Nigeria (98,300), Pakistan (75,000), Democratic Republic of the Congo (40,600), China (37,200), Bangladesh (26,100), Indonesia (25,800), Ethiopia (24,400), Angola (15,900) and Kenya (13,300)."
West Africa sees some of the highest rates of preterm birth-related deaths, especially in those currently being affected by Ebola.
In the U.S. a whopping 28.1 percent of deaths occurring under the age of 5 are from complications relating to preterm birth, which turns out to be about 1,110 deaths in this age group.
Four major efforts are now underway to help lower the rates of preterm birth led by partnerships such as: The Global Coalition to Advance Preterm Birth Research (GCAPR); the March of Dimes Campaign to End Premature Birth; The University of California at San Francisco's (UCSF) Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi); and the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS).
"To be successful, this has to be a team effort," said Larry Rand, director of Perinatal Services at UCSF and co-director of PTBi. "Effective collaboration will accelerate discovery, increase access to interventions that work and optimize the project's impact on rates of early preterm birth and mortality."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Lancet.
