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UN: 4.9M Children Under Five Died in 2024

Is malnutrition the true driver of child mortality or does lack of vaccination pose a greater threat to children's health?

Published 3 days ago

UN: 4.9M Children Under Five Died in 2024

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Above: A Somali child in a ward of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) NGO in Dadaab, Kenya, on July 22, 2011. Image credit: Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images

The Spin

Narrative A

Vaccines are the single most powerful tool for keeping children alive, and gutting funding for them is a death sentence for millions of kids. Since 1974, immunization has saved 154 million lives — 95% of them children under five — and every dollar invested returns $54 in health and economic benefits. Letting vaccine coverage collapse means preventable diseases roar back, erasing decades of hard-won progress.

Unicef

Narrative B

Malnutrition, not a lack of immunization, is the silent killer driving child mortality, and the world keeps ignoring it. A staggering 56% of under-5 deaths are attributable to malnutrition's potentiating effects on infectious disease, yet health strategies keep focusing only on severe cases. Mild-to-moderate malnutrition accounts for 83% of those deaths — fixing that gap would save the most lives.

BMJ Research Gate