Host Yasmine Vaughan Interviews Dr. Carrie Jo Cain, Dr. Solomon Samura, and Dr. Benjamin Banguara in Sierra Leone, West Africa on their work to understand the causes of child mortality and impact global health and child survival rates. CHAMPS works in Mali, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and Bangladesh and is moving into India and Nigeria in the next year. CHAMPS participates in Helping Children Worldwide’s global health coalition, Together for Global Health. To learn more about TGH, go to https://www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org/together-for-global-health.html
For information from the World Health Organization about the progress in reducing child mortality: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/levels-and-trends-in-child-under-5-mortality-in-2020#:~:text=Since%201990%2C%20the%20global%20under,1%20in%2027%20in%202020.
Joseph Benjamin Banguara is a self-motivated Public Health and Preventive Medicine expert with more than 18 years of experience in public health practice. At World Hope, Joseph coordinates all Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) activities in the southern region of Sierra Leone. At University of Makeni (UNIMAK), Joseph has been lecturing public health courses both at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, supervising students on dissertation writing and placement for the past 7 years. Prior to World Hope, Joseph was Technical Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Team in Bombali District Northern Sierra Leone. Prior to this, Joseph worked as a Project Coordinator, Global Collaboration to Improve Patient Safety Management in Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone for China Medical Board and Central South University in the People Republic of China (PRC). Joseph has a strong background on health-related research with publications on International Journals. Joseph also worked as Regional Coordinator-North, in the Community Health Workers (CHW) Program in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation of Sierra Leone. Joseph holds a Bachelor Degree in Public Health; Master’s Degree of Public Health (MPH) specialized in medicine; and currently a PhD candidate in Public Health and Preventive Medicine, major in Epidemiology and Health statistics awaiting result at the Central South University, China.
The Strategic Development Goals adopted by most countries around the globe include reducing newborn mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1000 live births in every country; and reduce under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1000 live births in every country.
Substantial global progress has been made in reducing childhood mortality since 1990. The total number of under-5 deaths worldwide has declined from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5 million in 2020. Since 1990, the global under-5 mortality rate has dropped by 60%, from 93 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 37 in 2020. This is equivalent to 1 in 11 children dying before reaching age 5 in 1990, compared to 1 in 27 in 2020.
While the global under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) fell to 37 (35–40) deaths per 1000 live births in 2020, children in sub-Saharan Africa continued to have the highest rates of mortality in the world at 74 (68–86) deaths per 1000 live births- 14 times higher than the risk for children in Europe and North America.
For more information regarding mortality in Sierra Leone, please check out the Countrywide Mortality Surveillance for Action (COMSA) for Sierra Leone and their publications: https://www.sciencedirect.com
Helpingchildrenworldwide.org