How to cut child mortality in half again
Making primary healthcare work
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19550923 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susanne Carai (0000-0002-7851-1746, Witten/Herdecke University), Sophie Jullien (0000-0001-5587-626X, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Pages | 03010-03010 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Global Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2047-2978 • E-ISSN: 2047-2986 |
| Publisher | International Society of Global Health (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.7189/jogh.16.03010 |
| PMID | 41990313 |
| OpenAlex | W7154562261 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
The gap between what primary healthcare (PHC) could achieve and what it currently delivers remains wide. Preventable child deaths remain a reality, particularly in underserved communities, and hard-won gains risk being reversed by diminishing attention. Making PHC work for children and adolescents requires clear, evidence-based standards, supportive health systems, and community-driven engagement. The WHO Pocket Book of Primary Health Care for Children and Adolescents and its mobile application bridge these pillars into one actionable strategy. Over the past decades, global child mortality has fallen by nearly 60%, largely due to services delivered through PHC. Yet millions of preventable deaths persist, reflecting weaknesses in governance, financing, workforce, and quality of care. Selective interventions contributed to earlier progress but narrowed the Alma Ata vision, limiting PHC to a small set of conditions. The Pocket Book and its app provide an integrated, evidence-based framework spanning birth to 18 years that operationalises comprehensive PHC. Country adaptation processes act as catalysts for systems change by identifying and correcting health systems' dysfunctions and engaging parents and caregivers as partners in care. This approach offers a practical pathway to halving child mortality again
Child mortality · Health care · MEDLINE · Primary care · Primary health care · Work (physics) · Child and Adolescent Health · Global Health Care Issues · Global Maternal and Child Health
The Lancet Global Health Commission on financing primary health care
Contribution of Primary Care to Health Systems and Health
Wasting resources in health care – unnecessary hospitalisations and over-medicalisation
Modified scoping review of the enablers and barriers to implementing primary health care in the Covid-19 context
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |