Lecture 9: Adolescents Flashcards
UN’s definition of children
Persons under 14 years of age. To ensure greater protection, children are often defined as persons under 18
Adolescents, teenagers, youth and young adults
Adolescents: 10-19
Teenagers: 13-19
Youth: 15-24
Young adults: 20-24
UNICEF Health Strategy
Children health, mother health and adolescent health
Link between the health of all three
Tend to look at mother and child as a unit as a result of this
Causes of illness and death among Children Globally
Diarrhea
o Bacterial, viral parasitic organisms
o Most are spread by feces contaminated water
o Can leave children severely dehydrated
Pneumonia
o Bacteria, viral and fungi
o Caused by bacteria can be treated with antibiotics
o Acute respiratory infection of alveoli
Birth Asphyxia
o Happens when babies brain or other organs don’t get enough oxygen before, during or right after birth
o Often lead to developmental disorders
Sepsis
o Imbilicocord contamination
Pertussis
o Highly contagious bacterial disease of the respiratory tract
o First symptoms generally occur within the first 7 to 10 days
o Mild fever, runny nose and cough
o Mainly occurs within infants and children and easily transmitted
Tetanus
o A bacterial infection usually contracted through a puncture would with an unclean object
HIV and newborns
In 2013, there were 200 000 newborns infected by HIV, and 90% of them were in sub Saharan Africa
A newborn has about a 15-45% of being infected by an HIV positive women who is not receiving antiviral medication
UNICEF and WHO have framework for what conditions
Lots of attention given to pneumonia and diarrhea
• Due to the high death rate of these two
Protect, treat and prevent
Immunization protection
Routine immunization prevents between 2 and 3 million deaths and protects up to 100 million people against illness and disability, yearly
Vaccine preventable diseases remain a major cause of child mortality around the world
Immunization is the most successful and cost-effective health strategy
Decade of Vaccines
WHO anticipates that new vaccines against cholera, dengue, malaria, polio and typhoid will be introduced during the decade of vaccines which began in 2010
Requirements for national immunization programs
Trained and adequately compensated healthcare personnel
Key challenges in child health
Healthy well-nourished mother
Mother to child HIV transmission
Attendance at delivery by skilled birth attendant
Appropriate care of newborn
Kangaroo mother care: skin to skin
Early and exclusive breast feeding for 6 months
Hygienic introduction of diverse complementary foods
Immunization
Preventable care and management of NCD and CD
Child labor
Any economic activity undertaken by children under the minimum age for admission to employment as defined by the International Labour Organization
Children under the age of 18 working more than 1 hour per week in paid or unpaid work, on casual or regular basis, legal or illegal
Positive aspects of child work
Keeps them busy
Providing for the family
Future independence
International labor definition of child labor
Work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development
Work that is mentally, physically, social or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling
Concentration of working children
Africa and Asia
Unconditional worst forms of child labor
Violation of already existing human rights standards
Example: child slavery, forced or bonded labor, child trafficking, prostitution, pornography, child soldiers
