What is keeping children alive, measured.
Vitalis reports research on reducing child deaths in the countries where most of them happen: pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, newborn care and nutrition. Each article pairs the results that worked with the ones that did not, with sources and study limitations.
- vaccines Typhoid conjugate vaccine at scaleOne dose of typhoid conjugate vaccine protected Malawian children by 78% over four years, and national and city programmes in India, Zimbabwe, Nepal and Pakistan now show similar results, though protection wanes in the youngest children and WHO's advisers now back a booster at age 5 in the hardest-hit settings.
- malaria SMC: still saving children, going southSeasonal malaria chemoprevention cuts clinical and severe malaria when children take every dose, but drug resistance limits how well it travels to East and Southern Africa.
- pneumonia The pill that replaced the needleEvidence from 2011–2026 supports oral amoxicillin for selected children with pneumonia and earlier oral treatment after hospital stabilisation; diagnosis, severity and follow-up determine who benefits.
- vaccines PCV: what it delivered, and going cheaperPneumococcal conjugate vaccines have cut childhood pneumococcal disease by three-quarters or more across Africa, and new trials show how countries can protect more children for less money.
- oxygen Seeing the invisible killerLow blood oxygen predicts death, but detecting it is only the first step. Trials from 2011–2026 show benefits, null results and harm from respiratory-support programmes in different settings.
- malaria The chlorfenapyr net: big win, expiry dateChlorfenapyr-pyrethroid bed nets still cut malaria in year three in Tanzania and 30% of cases in Ghana's rollout, but fading benefit and resistance argue for faster replacement.
- newborn care Two cheap newborn interventions, and where they workEarlier trials show why setting matters: chlorhexidine mortality results differed across countries, and broad steroid rollout caused harm while carefully targeted hospital treatment saved newborns.
- vaccines Rotavirus vaccines: half the protection, still a huge winIndia's home-grown Rotavac halved the rotavirus share of diarrhoea admissions, and vaccines give moderate but real protection in Afghanistan, Mali and Ghana, even though they work less well where children die most.
- azithromycin mda Azithromycin for child survival: benefit and resistanceTwice-yearly azithromycin for every child under five cut deaths by 14% in Niger, infant-only programmes failed in Mali and Burkina Faso, while longer treatment has selected resistance to multiple antibiotic classes.
- community health workers What actually saves children at the doorstepFifteen years of evidence show that community health workers can improve access, while survival effects vary. Large before-and-after declines in deaths should not be mistaken for randomised effects.
- intrapartum azithromycin Azithromycin in labour: maternal benefit, no newborn survival gainA single 2 g dose of azithromycin in labour cuts maternal infection, but has not reduced maternal deaths or newborn sepsis and mortality. WHO advises against routine use for vaginal birth.
- malaria The malaria vaccine era, measuredRoutine RTS,S vaccination in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi cut all-cause child deaths by about 13%, and R21 plus seasonal delivery with SMC point to larger gains.
- acute malnutrition Treating twice as many children with the same RUTFTrials in Mali, Niger, the DRC and Ethiopia show that simplified, reduced-dose treatment for wasting, often delivered by community health workers, cures as many children or more while using up to half the therapeutic food.
- diarrhoea Why the world's cheapest life-saver goes unusedORS and zinc are reconfirmed as effective, yet fewer than half of African children with diarrhoea get both; new experiments show the fixes lie in provider beliefs, packaging and reminders.
- newborn health Kangaroo care: from stable babies to immediate careThe newest pooled evidence from 29 trials shows that kangaroo mother care started in hospital cuts deaths among small babies by about a quarter and roughly halves serious infection, while a null Ugandan trial shows where its limits are.