Exam 8: Early Childhood: Physical Development

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Answers will vary. Advances in immunization along with the development of antibiotics and other medications have dramatically reduced the incidence and effects of serious childhood diseases. As most preschoolers and school children have been inoculated against major childhood illnesses such as rubella (German measles), measles, tetanus, mumps, whooping cough, diphtheria, and polio, these diseases no longer pose the threat they once did.Although many major childhood diseases have been largely eradicated in the United States and other industrialized nations, they remain fearsome killers of children in developing countries. Around the world, eight to nine million children die each year of just six diseases: pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, tetanus, whooping cough, and tuberculosis (Save the Children, 2015). Air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels for heating and cooking causes many respiratory infections, which are responsible for nearly one death in five among children who are younger than five years of age (Save the Children, 2015). Diarrhea kills nearly two million children under the age of five each year. Diarrheal diseases are mostly related to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation and hygiene (Save the Children, 2015).