Ethiopia has made remarkable progress in childhood vaccination coverage in
the last five years. Children are also better nourished today than they were five
years ago and childhood mortality has declined sharply. Despite the progress
in child health and nutrition, four in five children are not fully vaccinated against
the six major causes of childhood deaths and one in eight children dies before
their fifth birthday. Children in Ethiopia are least likely to be fully vaccinated
when compared with children in Rwanda, Uganda, Eritrea, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Data from the 2005 EDHS provide the current health and nutritional status of
children in Ethiopia, and, together with data from the 2000 EDHS, trace changes
over the last five years.
The discussion focuses on several areas of importance: nutritional status of
children; vaccination coverage; the prevalence and treatment of fever; acute
respiratory infection (ARI) and diarrhoea; and childhood mortality.
