By Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
At the beginning of the century, around 10 million children died every year before the age of five.
Nearly 25 years later, that number has been cut in half. Half! While there’s still work to be done, these results speak to the herculean efforts and incredible innovations of so many. We caught up with some of the world’s leading scientists and public health workers ahead of the World Health Summit and asked them what drives their work and how they’re helping to save more lives.
From finding new solutions to treating children who are severely malnourished; to ensuring vaccines are reaching every child; to protecting mothers and babies from deadly illnesses—these five leaders tell us about the new strategies we can use to save millions of children’s lives.
Every child deserves a fair chance to reach their full potential, and that starts with getting the health care and nutrition they need. Since the turn of the millennium, scientists and health workers have invented and delivered new solutions to address deadly diseases, cutting childhood deaths worldwide in half.
But even so, 5 million children die every year, and we have both the responsibility and the ability to change that. As researchers continue to expand the frontiers of science and health workers bring those advances to the families who need them, we can cut the number of child deaths in half again.
Around the world, nutrition experts are generating more precise insights into the nutrients children need to develop strong immune systems. Doctors and nurses are learning more about how to keep mothers healthy through pregnancy and childbirth so they and their babies can thrive. New vaccines, diagnostic tests, and treatments are making it easier for health workers to fight common illnesses.
Ahead of the World Health Summit in Berlin later this month, we asked several global health experts to share what inspires them as they work toward a common goal: a future in which no child dies from a preventable disease or condition. Their words are a reminder that, with the right funding and partnerships, the future of health is bright.
The Power of Science and Innovation
The Future of Health depends on continued investment in the critical innovations that can dramatically reduce child deaths from preventable diseases. Learn more about the Future of Health to see how far we’ve come—and where we’re heading.
What led you to work on treatments for child malnutrition?
Tahmeed Ahmed: If you visit a hospital in Bangladesh or any other low- or middle-income country, you will see children being treated for preventable diseases who are thin and small. They’re suffering from wasting, an acute form of malnutrition. When I began caring for malnourished children more than 30 years ago, we knew some children would die despite our best efforts.
That’s because malnourished children have an increased risk of death from many diseases. In 2022, 45 million children suffered from wasting. Severely wasted children in some countries can get a peanut paste–based treatment called ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), and it can help, but these children often relapse. It’s long been clear that as we work to scale existing lifesaving treatments, we also need to develop better treatments for wasting.
About 12 years ago, Dr. Jeffrey Gordon of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine and I began looking together into new ideas around wasting:
Could we learn something from the bacteria living in the intestines, called the gut microbiome? Our initial studies showed that severely wasted children were immature compared to healthy children and lacked gut bacteria that are helpful for growth, mental development, and immunity.
The question became how to replenish the good bacteria in children suffering from wasting. After several years of relentless work, we developed Microbiome-Directed Food (MDF), also known as Microbiome-Directed Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (MD-RUTF). It has been shown in initial trials to be an effective treatment for wasting and severe wasting.
Display of ready-to-use therapeutic cereal used for treating children with severe acute malnutrition at the Department of Dietetics, National Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria, on September 3, 2024.
Ready-to-use therapeutic cereal used for treating children with severe acute malnutrition in Abuja, Nigeria.
How are nutrition innovations working to address global health challenges?
Tahmeed Ahmed: Malnutrition affects millions of children, slowing the development of their bodies, their immune systems, and even their brains. MDF is a first-of-its-kind treatment, and initial studies are promising. It not only provides nutrition to the malnourished child but also modulates the child’s gut microbiome. That’s why we see MDF as a game-changer. We expect that its effects will be long-lasting, promoting development of the brain and boosting the immune system. It’s now being tested in community-based clinical trials in five countries.
