As many as 135 children die every day in Nepal because of various diseases, according to statistics available in Kathmandu Tuesday.

Malnutrition has been found to be a sole cause behind deaths of most of these children under five.

One in every five children under five die every five minutes. The annual figure for such deaths hover around 50,000, the statistics disclosed.

The inherent cause for the death of 60 percent of children is found to be malnutrition. Ten percent of children are found to have suffered from malnutrition, according to statistics provided by the Child Health Division under the Ministry of Health and Population.

The lack of proper health care for mothers during their pregnancy is likely to cause anemia among them.

This has led to birth of low weight children who later on fall prey to malnutrition, according to doctor Bhim Acharya of the division.

As babies are not usually breastfed by most of women in urban and rural women these days and most of pregnant women tend to suffer from anemia, babies tend to lose immunity power to combat diseases leaving them vulnerable to these diseases, Bhim added.

Likewise, Mother-Child Nutrition program is underway in 22 districts of the country with a view to making use of tablets more effective as well as promoting awareness among the local people.

Source: Xinhua