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. 2011;6(5):e20119.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020119. Epub 2011 May 24.

Diarrhea, pneumonia, and infectious disease mortality in children aged 5 to 14 years in India

Shaun K Morris  1 , Diego G Bassani, Shally Awasthi, Rajesh Kumar, Anita Shet, Wilson Suraweera, Prabhat Jha; MDS Collaborators
Affiliations

Diarrhea, pneumonia, and infectious disease mortality in children aged 5 to 14 years in India

Shaun K Morris et al. PLoS One. 2011.

Erratum in

  • PLoS One. 2013;8(11). doi:10.1371/annotation/65b7652d-fad0-4595-90b1-77f9685cf25f

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the causes of death in children in India after age five years. The objective of this study is to provide the first ever direct national and sub-national estimates of infectious disease mortality in Indian children aged 5 to 14 years.

Methods: A verbal autopsy based assessment of 3 855 deaths is children aged 5 to 14 years from a nationally representative survey of deaths occurring in 2001-03 in 1.1 million homes in India.

Results: Infectious diseases accounted for 58% of all deaths among children aged 5 to 14 years. About 18% of deaths were due to diarrheal diseases, 10% due to pneumonia, 8% due to central nervous system infections, 4% due to measles, and 12% due to other infectious diseases. Nationally, in 2005 about 59 000 and 34 000 children aged 5 to 14 years died from diarrheal diseases and pneumonia, corresponding to mortality of 24.1 and 13.9 per 100 000 respectively. Mortality was nearly 50% higher in girls than in boys for both diarrheal diseases and pneumonia.

Conclusions: Approximately 60% of all deaths in this age group are due to infectious diseases and nearly half of these deaths are due to diarrheal diseases and pneumonia. Mortality in this age group from infectious diseases, and diarrhea in particular, is much higher than previously estimated.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Estimated total deaths and mortality rates from diarrhea and pneumonia in children aged 5 to 14 years.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Diarrhea (left) and Pneumonia (right) Proportional Mortality.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Seasonality of Diarrhea and Pneumonia Deaths.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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