The current burden of >5 million deaths yearly is the focus of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years old by 2030. To accelerate progression toward this goal, data are needed that accurately quantify the leading causes of death, so that interventions can target the common causes. By adding postmortem pathology and microbiology studies to other available data, the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network provides comprehensive evaluations of conditions leading to death, in contrast to standard methods that rely on data from medical records and verbal autopsy and report only a single underlying condition. We analyzed CHAMPS data to characterize the value of considering multiple causes of death.

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Postmortem investigations and identification of multiple causes of child deaths: An analysis of findings from the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network

Authors: Robert F. Breiman, Dianna M. Blau, Portia Mutevedzi, Victor Akelo, Inacio Mandomando, Ikechukwu U. Ogbuanu, Samba O. Sow, Lola Madrid, Shams El Arifeen, Mischka Garel, Nana Bukiwe Thwala, Dickens Onyango, Antonio Sitoe, Ima-Abasi Bassey, Adama Mamby Keita, Addisu Alemu, Muntasir Alam, Sana Mahtab, Dickson Gethi, Rosauro Varo, Julius Ojulong, Solomon Samura, Ashka Mehta, Alexander M. Ibrahim, Afruna Rahman, Pio Vitorino, Vicky L. Baillie,Janet Agaya, Milagritos D. Tapia, Nega Assefa, Atique Iqbal Chowdhury, J. Anthony G. Scott, Emily S. Gurley, Karen L. Kotloff, Amara Jambai, Quique Bassat, Beth A. Tippett-Barr, Shabir A. Madhi, Cynthia G. Whitney, the CHAMPS Consortium