Children in Brazil

Health

Child mortality is another disappointing feature of Brazil. The child mortality rate for children under the age of five is 61 per 1,000 births (Jubilee, 1998). The main causes of infant death are malnutrition, diarrhea, and respiratory disease (Jubilee, 1998). UNICEF states that over 50 percent of Brazilian children suffer some degree of malnutrition. Newsweek reported that "over 150,000 Brazilian infants died before their first birthday from of proper nutrition, sanitation and health care (Jubilee, 1998)." Many children are born into proverty and their parents can't take care of them properly. Due to the lack of proper care, many Brazilian children have died from dehydration (Maldonado, 1996). UNICEF states that 320,000 children under the age of five die every year from unnecessary causes:

"that is :877 per day, 36 per hour, three every five minutes (Jubilee, 1998)."

Many children use glue, marijuana, cocaine, tobacco, and alcohol. In Sao Paulo, a survey among street children showed that 45 percent of children between the ages of six to 17 were classified as heavy drug users (Dimenstein, 1991). AIDS is also a growing epidemic due to the sharing of needles. In 1996, there were 79,000 AIDS cases reported (Jubilee, 1998). It is estimated that 15,000 children carry the HIV virus.

Although child mortality is a major problem, it is significantly lower in the rural areas of Brazil (Sastry, 1997). "153 deaths occured among the 1,435 births in the Northeast region and 1,651 births and 75 deaths occured in the South/Southeast region (Sastry, 1996)." The Northeastern region is where the most poverty is and the South/Southeast region is more rural. Neglected children in Brazil are an "urban problem which has its roots in rural poverty (Jubilee, 1998)."

References

Dimenstein, G. (1991). Brazilian War on Children, 1991. London: Latin America Bureau.

Jubilee Campaign (1998, October 2). Brazilian Street Children Briefing Paper. http://www.jubileecampaign.demon.co.uk/children/bra9.htm (November 7, 1999).

Maldonado, M. & Belsey, M. (1996). Culture Health and the Media. World Health, 28-9.

Sastry, Narayan (1996). Community characteristics, individual and household attributes, ands child labor survival in Brazil. Demography, 33, 211-29.

Sastry, Narayan (1997). What expains rural-urban differentials in child mortality in Brazil? Social Science & Medicine, 44 no7, 989-1002.

This page was created by Lindsay Bodack, Stephanie Hunter, Tom Kaufman, Caitlin Kelly as a collaborative project at Tulane University in the Children in Society class taught by Professor April Brayfield. The purpose of these pages it to educate the public on the plight of poverty stricken children in Brazil. To view other student web pages please visit the Children Around the World website.

Updated: December 16, 1999