New Delhi: More than 16.8 lakh children below five years died of infectious but preventable diseases in India in 2010 and more than half of them could not complete the first month of their life, a new study has claimed.
Of the total deaths, 52 percent or about 0.875 million were among the children, who died in the first 28 days of their life, according to the study published in The Lancet on May 10.
Pneumonia remained the leading killer, which accounted for 28.6 percent of all deaths in children under five, followed by preterm birth complications (18.1 percent) and diarrhoea (12.6 percent), the study found.
India was also among the five countries that collectively accounted for 49.3 percent (or 3.754 million) of 7.6 million children, who died in the first five years of their life in 2010.
