For most of human history, child mortality has been high. For centuries it was considered normal that 50% of children born would die by the age of 15. Childhood could be deadly, so even parents with numerous children knew that only a few might survive to become adults. Many of these deaths were eventually prevented by improvements to the environment in which children lived: thanks to better housing, clean water, proper nutrition, vaccines and attended births, child deaths are now rare.
Unfortunately we’re now going backwards again. A major health risk to young children in Britain is RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) which hospitalises about 33,500 children under five each year (there were nearly 31,000 hospitalisations in 2022-23), and causes 20-30 deaths. RSV causes breathing distress in young children, including wheezing, crackles and a caving-in of the chest between and under the ribs.
