Pattern of Mortality in children Aged 1 month up to 5 years in a teaching Hisital, Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia has one of the highest under five mortality rates in the world. This retrospective
study was designed to determine the pattern of under five mortality in Tikur Anbessa
hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All deaths among infants and children in the age group 1-
59 months that occurred during September 2001 to August 2002 were included in the
study. From a total of 1556 admissions, 297 died making the mortality rate 19.1% with 95%
confidence interval of 17.1-21.1%. Among 263 deaths, the documents of which could be
retrieved, the majority (70%) were infants(below 12 months). Deaths occurred in the first
48 hours in 61.6% of the cases. The median duration of illness was 7 days. Nearly one third
of the deaths had severe Protein-energy malnutrition. The top five causes of deaths, were
pneumonia, gastroenteritis, tuberculosis, pyogenic meningitis and sepsis. Serology for HIV
was positive in 5 cases and the infection was suspected in another 600 cases. Further study
on the impact of HIV on under-five mortality is recommended.