Burden of Disease Research Unit

What are the leading causes of death in children under 5 years of age?

The leading cause of death amongst children under 5 years according to the Revised Burden of Disease estimates for the Comparative Risk Factor Assessment for South Africa, 2000 (pdf format 259 kb) accounting for 33734 deaths or 35.1% of the deaths in under fives. This is followed by low birth weight (12.1%), diarrhoeal disease (11.0%), lower respiratory infections (6.3%) and protein-energy malnutrition (4.7%). The number and percentage of the total deaths amongst under fives are shown by specific cause in the table and figure below. The estimates from the Initial Burden of Disease estimates for South Africa, 2000 (pdf format, 457 kb) are shown in Tables 2 and Figure 2. Compared with the initial estimates, the revised estimates have the same ranking of causes but have a lower number of HIV/AIDS deaths for the year 2000. It should however, be noted that the number of HIV/AIDS deaths are likely to have increased since 2000.

Table: Top twenty specific causes of death in children under 5 years, South Africa 2000 - Revised

Figure: Top twenty specific causes of death in children under 5 years, South Africa 2000 – Revised

Table: Top twenty specific causes of death in children under 5 years, South Africa 2000 (Initial Burden of Disease Study)

Figure: Top twenty specific causes of death in children under 5 years, South Africa 2000 (Initial Burden of Disease Study)

Authors: Dr Rosana Norman, Prof Debbie Bradshaw, Michelle Schneider, Desiree Pieterse and Dr Pam Groenewald