GENEVA, Sept 8: Seven out of every 10 children aged under five who die in the world today succumb to a malnutrition-re • lated disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today, reports AFP.

Since 1990, pneumonia, diarrhoea. malaria and rubella (measles), which are linked to malnutrition, have killed around 55 million children before they reached five years old. out of a total of 80 million infant deaths, the WHO said in a statement ahead of a conference on child deaths in San Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

In many cases, healthcare workers treating the children do not distinguish the symptoms. which can be similar for the different illnesses, the organisations said.

Instead of trying to treat each disease separately, an integrated management of child-

hood illness” is needed, the WHO advised.

The four-day conference in San Domingo from today to Thursday will be attended by representatives from around 30 countries, the WHO. the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and around 20 nongovernmental organisations.

"A vast majority of health workers do not approach management of the sick child very well." Doctor Jim Tulloch, the director of the division of child health and development of the WHO. said.

'They need to know simple doable things they can recommend to families." he said.

Inexpensive treatments, including vaccinations, vitamins, antibiotics and mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide, could save many children if they were properly organised, Tulloch said.