My name is Dr. Megan Doherty. I am a palliative care pediatrician, supporting work in humanitarian settings. Our organizations note that the resolution lacks references to essential palliative care for neonates, babies, children, adolescents, and mothers suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancers, TB, severe malnutrition, and congenital conditions, among others. Palliative care aims to reduce suffering and improve quality of life for those with life-limiting/threatening conditions from diagnosis. Pain and symptom management with essential medicines is paramount to reduce suffering, along with holistic physical, psychological, social and spiritual care.
Manu, a baby we care for at our Southern Africa hospice with congenital anomalies, tuberculosis, and severe malnutrition, is just one of millions of such children I can tell you about. Manu and his mother Jane, a migrant from a neighboring country, lived in extreme poverty.Jane, who couldn’t breastfeed because of her severe malnutrition, collapsed and died after walking to the local hospital to get baby formula. When he reached us, Manu was very weak, emotionally unresponsive, and couldn’t smile or cry. With nutrition, TB treatment and palliative care, he is now a plump, happy 4 month-old.Manu is one of the few who received the care he needed to thrive: of over 21 million children worldwide with palliative care needs, only around 5% of them receive it. In LMICs, palliative care is essential for premature babies, those with congenital diseases as well as children with cancer. Childhood cancer’s peak incidence occurs in children under 5 years of age, whose survival can be as low as <20% Children living with HIV are even more vulnerable than adults: while children constitute 4% of people living with HIV, they represent 15% of AIDS-related deaths. This approach includes palliative care.NGOs and faith-based organizations provide most of what little palliative care services DO exist in LMICs. $1 million can cover the cost of meeting the unmet need for oral and injectable immediate-release morphine for all children younger than 15 in low income countries.We call on Member States to integrate palliative care into primary health care as stipulated in the Astana Declaration and GPW14. All practitioners who attend children with life-threatening illnesses should be trained in palliative care, which should be included in curricula of health and social care providers, midwives and Traditional Birth Attendants.