A report released by The Alliance for Safe Children and UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre reinforces the notion that child drowning is a hidden epidemic across many countries in Asia.

The report titled Child Drowning – Evidence for a newly recognized cause of child mortality in low and middle income countries in Asia is the second in a series which first pointed to the magnitude of child injury deaths across five countries; Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, the Philippines and Thailand.

This new report focuses specifically on drowning, outlining evidence that it is a bigger problem than official records show, that there are now interventions proven in the LMIC context, and outlining the challenges of raising national, regional and global action.

The report highlights that drowning is a leading killer of children after infancy, and must be considered by policy makers in this public health context. Ambassador Pete Peterson, President of The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) states “there is no difference whether a child dies from measles, diarrhea, pneumonia or drowning; it is equally tragic. Like these other causes, child drowning is a leading cause of death in children and now that we know it is equally preventable, it is time to act.”