Four of every five stillbirths and deaths of young children investigated by a CDC-supported surveillance network in Africa and South Asia were preventable or possibly preventable with care that already exists, according to a CDC report posted September 8. Of 7,558 deaths with a preventability assessment, 6,103, or 80.7 percent, fell into those categories.
The findings come from the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance network, known as CHAMPS, which uses laboratory testing of tissue samples after death to determine why babies and young children died. Routine mortality data in these regions often rely on family interviews and assign a single cause, which can miss infections, maternal conditions and gaps in care.
