ABOUT THE CAUSE:
43% of all children's deaths under the age of five are preventable

Statistics / Introduction:
The functions of medical camps will differ from country to country or even region to region.  Existing clinics are under staffed and function without basic equipment, medicines and resources needed to treat fully care for their patients.  There are many areas of the world where medical care is simply a luxury that most can not afford resulting in increase health issues, disease, child mortality and preventable death.

The highest rates of child mortality continue to be found in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, one in seven children there died before their fifth birthday; the highest levels were in Western and Central Africa, where one in six children died before age five (169 deaths per 1,000 live births).  All 34 countries with under-five mortality rates exceeding 100 per 1,000 live births in 2008 are in sub-Saharan Africa, except Afghanistan.

Four diseases—pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and AIDS— accounted for 43 per cent of all deaths in children under five worldwide in 2008. Most of these lives could have been saved through low-cost prevention and treatment measures, including antibiotics for acute respiratory infections, oral rehydration for diarrhoea, immunization, and the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and appropriate drugs for malaria. The need to refocus attention on pneumonia and diarrhoea—two of the three leading killers of children—is urgent. The use of new tools, such as vaccines against pneumococcal pneumonia and rotaviral diarrhoea, could add momentum to the fight against these common diseases and provide an entry point for the revitalization of comprehensive programming. Ensuring proper nutrition is a critical aspect of prevention, since malnutrition increases the risk of death.

Medical camps in rural communities are a vital first step in the education, treatment and elimination of preventable deaths.