Almost 9 million children die every year before the age of 5 — or nearly one child every three seconds. Just under 4 million of these children die within their first month, nearly 3 million of them die within the first week and nearly 2 million of them die on their first day of life.

These are just a few of the sobering statistics in a new report released last month by the international organization Save the Children titled "The Next Revolution: Giving Every Child the Chance to Survive." Although progress is being made — in 2006 the annual under-5 mortality fell below 10 million for the first time since record-keeping began and the figure dropped to 8.8 million last year — the international community must not allow its efforts to flag in the struggle to save children's lives.

Save the Children, an international organization, identifies three primary factors responsible for child mortality. First, a small number of "diseases and conditions" cause more than 90 percent of deaths in children under 5: pneumonia, measles, diarrhea, malaria, HIV/AIDS and a variety of neonatal conditions. Neonatal conditions, which include severe infections, asphyxia and premature births, are extremely troubling as they are responsible for 86 percent of newborn deaths. Most tragic is the fact that in nearly all cases the diseases and conditions responsible for child deaths will be preventable and treatable if proper care is available.